Johnston Press is in advanced talks to buy the i, the cut-price national newspaper owned by Evgeny Lebedev, in a move which multiple sources say will spell the end of the Independent and Independent on Sunday.
The regional newspaper publisher that owns more than 200 titles is understood to be in negotiations to buy the i for about £25m.
The Lebedevs quietly put the i, which sells about 275,000 copies a day, up for sale late last year, as revealed by the Guardian.
Interested parties included the Mirror, which has decided instead to work on its own cut-price national newspaper, and News UK, owner of the Sun, Times and Sunday Times.
The i has been a huge success for Lebedev, the owner of a stable of media assets including the Independent, Evening Standard and local TV station London Live, since it was launched in 2010.
The i, which at launch was promoted as the first new quality daily national title to hit the streets since stablemate the Independent in 1986, has been key in helping the company to dramatically turn around group losses of more than £20m when Lebedev bought the Independent in 2010.
The publisher’s former chief executive, Andy Mullins, has described the i, which has doubled in price to 40p since launch, as strategically vital in providing a “rubber ring” around the Independent.
The company has said that it is the i that has “made the Indy sustainable”, making a sell-off of the title potentially strategically tricky for its overall co-dependency commercial model.
Multiple sources have suggested that the Independent and Independent on Sunday will be forced to close without the support of the i.
