June 10, 2013updated 11 Jun 2013 1:20pm

20 editorial jobs to go as The Times seeks to reduce losses

The Times is set to axe about 20 editorial staff in a bid to reduce losses at the paper.

Acting editor John Witherow announced the potential job cuts but said that there would be “no great benefits at this stage” in merging with its sister title The Sunday Times. Such a move will be kept "under review".

Witherow is reported by The Times as saying: “For several years now Times Newspapers has been losing money.

“The company has tolerated this because it could use profits from elsewhere in News Corp to pay for our papers and because the proprietor has a passion for newspapers.

“I fear that era of being subsidised is coming to an end. The separation of the two companies means that the newspapers will form a bigger and more exposed element in the new News Corp.”

According to The Times, the 20 redundancies targeted would represent less than 10 per cent of the total staffing.

On a potential merger with The Sunday Times, he said: “Fundamental changes are limited by the undertakings and in fact we see no great benefits at this stage from merging much of editorial, though we will keep this under review.

“It is important as much for commercial reasons as editorial that we keep the characters of the papers separate and this requires different staff in several areas.”