Russian billionaire and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev has bought the Independent and Independent on Sunday for just £1 from Irish publishing group Independent News & Media, MediaGuardian reported today.

Lebedev has created the company Independent Print Limited to publish the titles. As part of the deal, INM will pay the company £9.25 million over the next 10 months, and in exchange IPL will take on "all future trading liabilities and obligations." The acquisition is expected to be completed in May.

According to the Dublin-based INM, which owns newspapers in several countries, the Independent print titles and corresponding Web site Independent.co.uk had an operating loss of more than £12.4 million last year, according to the Guardian. This week, the company reported a net loss of €87.8 million for 2009 and a 15 percent decrease in revenue, to €1.25 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

"It would have cost Independent News about £30 million to shut down the money-losing paper, a person close to the matter said," the WSJ article stated.

In January last year, Lebedev bought a 75.1 percent stake in the London Evening Standard for a token £1, due to that newspaper's loss-making status as well.

"I invest in institutions which contribute to democracy and transparency and, at the heart of that, are newspapers which report independently and campaign for the truth to be revealed," Lebedev said in a statement, according to The New York Times. "I am a supporter of in-depth investigative reporting and campaigns which promote transparency and seek to fight international corruption. These are things The Independent has always done well and will, I hope, continue to do."

Lebedev has not said whether he will make the Independent newspapers free.

The current cover price for the Independent is £1. It sold 183,500 copies each day in February, a decline of 11 percent compared to the same month in 2009, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. The Independent on Sunday sold an average of 155,600 copies each Sunday last month, BusinessWeek reported.

"This is a most satisfactory and positive outcome for the titles, their staff and for INM's shareholders," INM CEO Gavin O'Reilly* said in a statement, according to BusinessWeek.

*Gavin O'Reilly is also president of WAN-IFRA, of which this blog is part.