Yesterday’s departure of The Times editor James Harding is being widely interpreted as a bid by News International to clear the way toward a formal merger of The Times and Sunday Times, according to reports in The Telegraph.
Informal approaches are said to have been made by several senior executives to government ministers in a bid to obtain approval for a merged operation, which is currently barred by undertakings given by Murdoch at the time of his acquisition of the titles.
That legal agreement was signed by Murdoch and presently resides within the Department for Culture, Media & Sport.
Murdoch is keen to create a single seven day news operation from the two papers, which would reduce overheads and make the titles more attractive as a potential proposition for outside investors.
Harding tendered his resignation yesterday after securing a £1.3m pay-off, apparently following disquiet from Murdoch about the way in which the paper had covered the News of the World phone hacking scandal in recent months.
John Witherow, current editor of the Sunday Times, will replace Harding in the role at the end of the month.