Shares in Johnston Press jumped by more than 20% on Monday morning.
Following reports that the Daily Mail-owner DMGT (LON: DMGT) is planning to buy the newspaper after it put itself for sale in October.
The news was first reported by Sky. Johnston Press has not yet commented on the developments.
The group, which owns The Scotsman and The Yorkshire Post, has been struggling £220 million debt, which must be paid off by June 2018.
Jane Martinson, who is the professor of business journalism at City University, said on the Today programme that DMGT might buy the i newspaper, which is “quite complementary to the other papers in its stable, particularly the Metro”.
“It is cheap, there is actually a cost to buy the i whereas the Metro is free. The overlap with the Metro is quite good in terms of readers, they are both neutral politically which is really interesting for DMGT, the owner of the Mail.”
According to Martinson, seeing Johnston Press sell of different titles is “a sad way to end”.
“They were making huge fat profit margins but used it to spend lots and lots of money for titles like the Scotsman, like the Yorkshire Press and it now looks like, saddled with £220 million to pay back next summer, they cannot do it.”
“They have had to put themselves up as a fire sale.”
In a note to investors last month, Johnston Press said: “In order to assess all strategic options to maximise value to its stakeholders, the board of Johnston Press announces today that it has decided to seek offers for the company.”
“There can be no certainty that any offer will be made for Johnston Press, nor that any transaction will be executed, nor as to terms of any such offer or transaction.”
Shares in Johnston Press (LON: JPR) are trading up 20.43% at 3.95 (1038GMT).