Australia's major newsmedia publishers are to share ad revenue stats in a world-first customisation of the growing Standard Media Index network.

Quarterly breakdowns including non-agency revenue will be included in figures, thanks to a partnership with The Newspaper Works - now rebranded as NewsMediaWorks - and major member publishers.

At a launch in Sydney this afternoon, TNW chairman Michael Miller - announced the initiative to deliver "a new standard of media industry advertising spend data" and address undervaluing of newsmedia's share. SMI put last year's Australian newsmedia ad revenues at $2.4 billion. It presented this breakdown:

Publisher members of NewsMediaWorks - which represents News Corp Australia, Fairfax Media, APN News & Media and Seven West - will provide direct access to their payment systems to deliver what they claim will be the most robust data on the sector's advertising expenditure.

Traditionally SMI has sourced revenue information from advertising agencies, claiming to cover up to 80 per cent of the total agency spend across 15 global markets, including 99 per cent of that for Australian agencies and leading independents. Headquartered in New York, it has offices in London, Sydney and Madrid.

"This is the first time SMI has used its bespoke data collection and processing software to collect advertising bookings directly from media companies," says Jane Schulze, a former media and business journalist who runs the SMI's Australian and NZ operations since cofounding the business with Sue Fennessy in 2009. "It's an honour to be trusted with such an important assignment."

The News Media Index - which Schulze says will be "the most reliable advertising expenditure report ever produced by a media industry organisation" - will be available to "anyone who cares to source it".

Last year's report, showing a total advertising expenditure of $2.4 billion, "highlights the robust health of Australia's news media industry". Figures will separate print, digital and newspaper-inserted magazines, and is also the first to include direct (or local) advertising... but individual publishers will not be identified.

"The data is being created using the same systems and processes SMI employs to collect the data of our global media agency partners in more than 15 markets around the world," Schulze says.

Publisher data has been mapped to the same SMI data taxonomy used by SMI's agency partners.

NewsMediaWorks chief executive Mark Hollands says the new index responds to requests of advertisers and investors to reveal that the Australian news media sector has been significantly undervalued by independent analysts. "It provides the first real view of the news media sector's true size," he said.

Pictured: Greg Hywood (Fairfax Media), Neil Monaghan (APN News & Media), Schulze (SMI) and Miller (News Corp Australia) with versions of the new NMW logo