Will #TeamSaatchi rescue the Indy?

Roy Greenslade has set the hare running with his claim that Alexander Lebedev and his mini-mogul son Evgeny are looking to offload the Independent titles. The ‘viewspaper’ is understood to be haemorrhaging cash.

‘This is not new news,’ one insider tells me; although, as Greenslade reports, ‘the official line’ is that Independent Print (which makes the Indy, the Sindy and the i)  ‘is merely seeking new investors.’ But even that won’t be easy: newsstand sales of the Indy are down to 43,224  (which in part reflects the success of the ‘i’) and any investor/bidder will have to consider the Indy’s integration with the (profitable) Evening Standard, which is so extensive that the two papers share the same newsroom. Here’s the circulation:

So, who might want to buy?  There is no shortage of oligarchs and sheiks who want to put their stamp on London, the global capital, or fancy the entree to the various parties which usually comes with ownership of print.