Peter Preston in the Observer raised the idea of a merger harking back to when the Evening News and the Evening Standard merged decades earlier.
But while such a decision would make financial sense (thelondonpaper lost £16.5m in the first year of its operation) it would represent a huge loss of faith and essentially hand victory to Associated Newspapers and take the pressure off of the Evening Standard.
Thelondonpaper currently out distributes London Lite by almost 100,000 copies with its circulation of 500,000 and it really seems to show.
Some days I rarely see London Lite. It is not distributed outside my Tube station home (Baron's Court - just down the road from Associated HQ) and on the Tube itself it often looks like a sea of thelondonpaper. Although I am not sure why that is the case as there are usually two of each standing outside the bigger Hammersmith station.
It would be a shame if it did close or merge. Not only does it look better and fresher, but it would obviously lead to journalistic job losses.
That process has already started in a small way over at Associated as Press Gazette reported last week that the London Evening Standard and London Lite have merged their newsdesk operations, leading to the departure of London Lite news editor Michael Leese.
The changes mean Standard news editor Hugh Dougherty will now oversee the news editing of the Evening Standard and London Lite alongside his deputy Steve Vaughan.
It also means that London Lite is even more a shadow of the Evening Standard. You might ask if that really matters when it comes to a freebie evening read? I think it does.
A News International's response to the speculation of closure was to deny it outright and, in doing so, did point to its new shiny Hertfordshire printing plant that represents a £650m investment.
"We intend to build on the success of our market leading national titles and that of thelondonpaper in the years ahead."
Well it would say that, wouldn't it? But when you are making denials no one ever quite believes you, particularly if you have just closed your loss-making magazine division as James Murdoch did.
Many observers read that as a cue that he was willing to take tough decisions and that next on his list was to close the even bigger loss maker that is thelondonpaper.
But look at it another way, maybe he was making a tough call on what was not a core part of News International's business in News Magazines and sell women's weekly title Love it!, as the publisher prepares to dig in for the long-haul battle in the London freesheet market. Newspapers are after all its business.
Gordon Macmillan
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