MediaGuardian stated that their media industry sources were "aware of rumours about the plan," the site reported.

Head of press at Universal McCann Dan Pimm said he is not surprised by the idea to go free because he “saw a gap in the market for a freesheet in the quality sector,” he told MediaGuardian.

"It seems to make sense because the circulation is so low and advertising revenue is minimal because of it," Pimm said. "If they start building up circulation through free, there's a good chance they'll be able to put the rates up. Advertisers are prepared to pay for the free model."

He pointed out the best model would be to distribute copies at mainline stations and maybe to make the paper free only in certain regions.

However, skepticism arose over whether the strategy would lead to a big circulation increase to make the economics viable.

"There is price elasticity in the market - the Times damaged the Telegraph years ago by dropping its price - but with the freesheets now it is a different market. They might have to almost triple circulation to get the ad yield to match the loss of cover price," the press director of one media agency told MediaGuardian.

"It would throw a cat among the pigeons in the newspaper market and being the smallest (in its sector) means it would have the least to lose in terms of cover price revenue, but with a depressed ad market I can't see it happening".

Steve Goodman, managing director of print trading at GroupM, told MediaGuardian it would not be surprising if the Independent and other papers were considering free editions.

"This time in five years' time there will be a lot of (existing) papers with free editions as well as new launches," he said.

Shaun Gregory, the chief executive at mobile media Blyk and a former Telegraph executive, said that "if you can get the model right it can be beautiful as you can pick up numbers and get advertisers. One of the nationals will go free, it's purely a matter of time," according to MediaGuardian.

Andy Taylor, the head of press at Carat, said he had heard the rumour but was skeptical, "I think it would compromise the editorial integrity and the Independent's current standard. They're not the largest circulating … but I don't see massive problems either."

Taylor thought that it would be a risky strategy but perhaps could work if it was outside the heartland of London and the south-east, perhaps in the Midlands or in Scotland.