Rival Scottish dailies The Scotsman and The Herald could be brought under a single management within years, a senior figure at the former has predicted.

Bill Jamieson, executive editor at The Scotsman, said he would not be surprised if the titles were owned by the same company within the next few years to ensure their survival.

He said such a merger could result in The Scotsman, currently owned by Johnston Press, and Newsquest’s The Herald sharing services such as marketing, distribution, advertising and IT while remaining editorially separate, with their own identities.

Bill said this would cut costs by millions of pounds, while offering advertisers a more compelling proposition.

Writing in a personal capacity for the Scottish Review website, he said: “What hope is there for newspaper titles in Scotland? I do not profess to have any inside track on what newspaper managements are thinking.

“But it would be surprising to me if in the next few years the Scotsman and Herald titles are not brought in under one management.

“The two titles could remain editorially separate with their own editors, geographic, cultural and political biases.

“But they would shelter under a common umbrella of shared services – marketing, distribution, advertising, HR, wages, library and IT services.

“This would shave millions of pounds off costs while offering advertisers a more compelling circulation proposition and also maintaining the editorial integrity of the two titles where it matters.”

Bill added any merger could result in the sharing of content such as gardening columns, race cards, TV listings and celebrity interviews to release more resources for news, analysis and opinion pieces.