Senior staff at The Times and The Sunday Times were called in for separate meetings at 12:30 today to be told the papers are taking their first steps towards a widely expected merger. Guido hears the meetings were full of high emotion. There will be inevitable job losses…

Read the email from The Times and The Sunday Times editors John Witherow and Martin Ivens in full here:

“As you are aware the DCMS recently approved some amendments to the undertakings that govern The Times and The Sunday Times. This means that the two newsrooms can share resources where the editors agree.

We would like to propose sharing resources in travel, money, property, sport and sports production. The Sunday Times Travel magazine is not affected.

We want to see how we can organise certain editorial teams differently, in a better way. That makes sense for reducing duplication when we commission stories and features and it will extend our range. The readers will get a stronger edition in print and digital.

We understand that these changes may be unsettling for the people affected but we anticipate that new opportunities and more staff roles may be created through changing how we work.

We will start a consultation process today with News Union and the people that work in those departments. If you work in travel, personal finance, property, sport or sports production you will receive an email with a meeting time for today. We expect the consultation process to take at least 30 days.

It is important for the long-term viability of both newspapers that we organise our resources as efficiently as possible and that we continue to innovate to produce outstanding journalism.”

The undertakings still prevent a full-on merger…