The London Evening Standard and The Independent have announced a merger that will crate joint business and sports desks shared between the two publications. Independent staff will head the sports desk up while London Evening Standard writers will man the business desk.

The merger is an effort to economise in response to the increasingly difficult financial situation faced by the majority of print newspapers - including these two titles, that are published by Independent Print Ltd. and owned by the Lebedev family.

The Evening Standard explained the motivation for the move in a press statement:

"The Evening Standard and the Independent are both exploring ways to see how integration between them in a limited way can benefit all the papers owned by the Lebedevs. This is a constructive and useful way to maintain our high quality journalism and reduce costs in an economic climate which has hurt the whole newspaper industry."

However, combining desks means losing staff. Around 20 positions have been put at risk by this latest initiative, which has prompted the National Union of Journalists to propose a ballot for industrial action that will run from 21 November to 1 December.

The new joint desks will be headed by Neil Robinson on sports, who is the current Independent on Sunday sports editor and James Ashton, the city editor for The Standard.

Sources: Journalism.co.uk, press release: London Evening Standard via Brown Lloyd James