The Independent is to move in with the Daily Mail in West London next year, in a scheme designed to help safeguard the future of the struggling upmarket title by saving it about £2 million a year.

Parent company Independent News & Media will continue to own The Independent and its Sunday sister title, but it will share back office services, such as information technology and payroll with the Mail's publisher, Associated Newspapers.

Roger Alton, the editor of The Independent, and his 200 journalists will have separate office space to Paul Dacre, the editor of The Daily Mail, and the staff on the Mail, Evening Standard and other Associated titles already housed in Kensington.

The Independent will preserve its separate left-of-centre editorial identity — an agenda often completely at odds with the Mail's focus on Middle England and no editorial services, including sub-editing, will be shared with the Mail or other Associated titles.

The plans are part of an intense effort to restore the finances of The Independent, which with its Sunday stablemate, is expected to lose over £10 million this year, as the advertising market collapses. Earlier this month, it announced plans to shed 90 staff, saving £10 million once the redundancies are complete.

Currently The Independent and The Independent on Sunday are based on Marsh Wall, on the fringes of London's Canary Wharf development in East London. Once the job cuts are complete, the newspapers will no longer need all the space in the Docklands building.

Ivan Fallon, chief executive of Independent News and Media, UK, said that the move "will transform the prospects of the Independent titles", and that it would bring cost savings immediately, creating "more commercially viable newspapers while staying true to the editorial values we cherish.”

Ian Hanson, operations director of Associated Newspapers, said: “We look forward to welcoming Independent News and Media to our offices in Kensington. The cost savings from a sharing of infrastructures will be beneficial to both organisations.” Associated is owned by Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT).

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