So DMGT is not making a bid for Independent News & Media (INM) as some reports suggested, but The Independent, that most liberal of papers, is moving in with the Daily Mail (LSE: DMGT). INM said in a statement, that The Independent and Independent On Sunday will leave their current Docklands home and be given their own office space at Northcliffe House alongside DMGT’s Associated Newspapers division, home of the Daily Mail as well as the Evening Standard, Metro and London Lite.

Both sides will save money by sharing “some back office services” and INM was keen to stress “the two groups’ editorial, management and commercial operations will remain entirely separate”. Computer Weekly has it that the IT, finance and accounting departments are to merge. But no mention of whether the two businesses will collaborate on digital matters: Associated has much larger editorial and technical staffs to call on as well as larger budgets than perhaps any other national newspaper. So will improvements to Independent.co.uk’s “back office services” help it to emulate the massive traffic boost enjoyed by of Mail Online in the past year? More after the jump..

Both publishers have been hit hard by the downturn in ad revenues and increase in printing costs: DMGT is to lay off some 300 staff across the group while the Indy is shedding 90 editorial staff to save £10 million and the office-share is designed to halt any future cuts. In an email to staff (via PG) managing editor Simon Kelner says the move will happen in the “early part of 2009” and that the move was designed the safeguard the future of the titles. “It means we divest ourselves of the burdensome cost of Marsh Wall (which is now much too big for us), and gives us a settled home in a modern, dynamic environment. Everything we are doing is with the intention of protecting the titles, and as many jobs as we can”.

They make an odd couple: the staunchly right-wing, family-values obsessed, Mail has become a by-word for Middle England while the Indy remains outspokenly left-wing and many of its staff will not be pleased by the move. But business is business and things are now so bad for the Indy, a publisher founded on the principles of liberalism and independence, that it is forced to work with a publisher that occupies the opposite end of the political spectrum and the newspaper market.

• DMGT Call: Morgan Details 300 Job Cuts, Selective Hiring Freeze; ‘Yet To Monetise Mail Online’