Industry sources say that a tabloid version of the paper is set to launch soon for a trial period.
The paper is understood to be holding talks with media agencies at the beginning of next week and the new version of the paper could be rolled out the following week, beginning September 29, or even as soon as the next day.
The paper is expected to be priced at 30p, with a print run of 55,000 within the M25, in an attempt to attract commuters who want a manageable-sized read on the train. It could also be a trial to see how well received a tabloid version of the paper would be.
Another possibility is a spin-off title that includes a digest of the paper's news stories as well as comment. This would complement the broadsheet and get people who are so far unfamiliar with the title to read it and eventually convert to the full-size paper.
However, The Independent has assured media agencies that the paper will stay broadsheet for at least a couple of years.
The Independent could not be reached to comment on the news at the time of writing.
Some industry insiders believe the tabloid could be a last-ditch attempt to revive the paper's flagging fortunes. The Independent titles' circulations have also been struggling to improve. In August, the Independent's circulation had almost stabilised on the previous month, down just 0.3% to 217,474, a year-on-year drop of 3.32%.
The Independent on Sunday showed a 1.29% improvement on July, but was down 3.98% on its August 2002 figure to 217,294.
Its parent company Independent News & Media, the publishing group owned by Sir Anthony O'Reilly and headquartered in Ireland, last week announced that its UK division, which publishes The Independent and Independent on Sunday, saw ad revenues drop 3.3%.
This is not the first time the publisher has thought about publishing in a tabloid format. The paper is believe to have planned a tabloid launch at the end of the Nineties, and even got as far as putting together a mock-up issue, but the plans fell through.
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