Fairfax Media, News Corp Australia and Nine will start sharing data about their audiences in 2018, aiming to compete against search giant Google and social media site Facebook for advertising dollars.
The alliance plans to authenticate user identification to ensure that whenever a reader logs in to an account with one of the publishers through any device, they will be able to be tracked and targeted.
Nine chief sales officer Michael Stephenson said it would allow the three brands to use their combined identity in "brand safe environments".
"This combination of Australian publishers will offer a real alternative to the global players for our advertisers and agency partners," Mr Stephenson said.
The main global players currently consist of search giant Google and social media company Facebook, whose role in diverting advertising away from traditional media is being scrutinised by the Australian competition regulator.
This is something each publisher already does independently, and the Silicon Valley giants are known for targeting through logins on sites such as YouTube and Facebook, but as a collective it allows the three media companies to target a 15 million-strong audience that could let them compete against these global giants.
Advertisers have become increasingly sensitive to "safe" environments online, but also to "addressable" audiences.
By authenticating, it means that regardless of whether someone is using a mobile phone, laptop or other device to access the content, they will still be identified by the same user ID if they have logged in to any of the company's sites. There may be the potential to opt-out of the arrangement.
This is expected to be attractive to advertisers who will be able to target specific people rather than cookies. Campaigns can be designed to specifically cater to these users, for instance serving different advertisements by devices or on second viewing.
The user ID is anonymous, but being able to focus on targeting people rather than devices is becoming a global focus to ensure "addressability" of audiences.
The media companies have signed a memorandum of understanding, with the initiative expected to begin in the first half of 2018.
Fairfax Media managing director of Australian Metro Publishing Chris Janz expected the initiative to streamline how marketers can leverage data from content publishers.
It also moved the conversation away from "cookies" and towards targeting people, News Corp Australia chief digital officer Nicole Sheffield said.
"As Australian content creators it's incumbent on us more than ever to ensure our audiences, data, content and now identity are being properly harnessed for marketers by Australians," she said.
She said it would allow advertisers access to a "premium, safe environment full of local content".
This is the first alliance of its kind between the three publishers, with details of the arrangement still under discussion.
It would potentially allow future businesses to share their user IDs, such as banks and loyalty companies, as well as other publishers.
Fairfax Media recently announced a first of its kind partnership with Google to allow some of its programmatic advertising to be handled by the tech giant, and to work together on future digital media projects.
