'Merge The Scotsman and The Hearld businesses but not the titles'

Here is an interesting idea. Former editor of scotsman.com Stewart Kirkpatrick is suggesting a business merger between Scottish quality dailies The Herald and The Scotsman while retaining the separate titles, allmediascotland reports today.
He says: "As things currently stand, if one title took over the other it would pick up so few readers and advertisers as to render the exercise pointless. However, there is a cleverer way: merge the businesses but keep the titles largely separate.
"This would involve cutting costs by streamlining the 'backroom' functions of both organisations: sales, IT, printing, etc. Scotland has in it enough talented journalists to make one world-class newsroom strong enough to send the tartanised English editions 'hameward to think again'. "
In England, The Independent has already taken a tentative step in this direction by moving into the Kensington headquarters of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday to share back office functions and costs.