According to The Guardian, the secret document was left on top of a printer in the newsroom by a senior ITV executive, and was then circulated to employees.
At the beginning of the month, ITV revealed it would only be broadcasting the news channel for 12 hours a day on Freeview, from 6am to 6pm, due to "limited space on Freeview" and to make way for the new male-targeted entertainment channel ITV4. It broadcasts 24 hours a day on Sky.
There is further speculation that the station could close as soon as February, when a new ITV children's channel takes over its remaining slot on Freeview.
David Mannion, editor-in-chief of ITV News, responded to staff concerns with a memo describing the document merely as a contingency plan, adding that nothing has been set in stone.
ITV News has been struggling to compete with other major broadcasters such as Sky News, which racked up a reach of 8.8m in July, more than double that of ITV News's 4.2m.
ITV News even found itself being beaten by US Fox News, which does not broadcast from the UK and averages a 0.14% share of viewing in satellite homes, compared with 0.12% for ITV News.
An ITV spokesman declined to release a statement, saying: "We don't comment on leaked memos."
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