Owners discuss Italy news agency merger-sources

MILAN, July 10 (Reuters) - The owners of two of Italy's leading news agencies Agi and Radiocor are discussing merging them, two sources close to the operation told Reuters on Friday.

"There are negotiations underway," said one of the sources.

The other source said: "The idea they are working on is to create a new company controlled 50:50."

Agi is owned by Italian energy company ENI (ENI.MI), while leading Italian business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore (S24.MI) controls Radiocor.

Eni would name the chief executive while Il Sole 24 Ore would appoint the director, the sources added.

Eni and Il Sole 24 Ore declined to comment.

Combining the two news agencies would give them greater scale to compete with leading agency ANSA. Media businesses worldwide are seeking cost cuts to try to cope with falling readership and advertising revenues as clients cut spending.

Currently, Agi and Radiocor have around 150 journalists, mainly in Italy and Europe.

ANSA, Italy's biggest news agency, has journalists in 74 countries and 1,400 clients. It is owned by a group of newspapers and other investors, including Il Sole 24 Ore.

Il Sole 24 Ore is 67.5 percent-owned by Italy's industry association Confindustria. (Reporting by Alberto Sisto, writing by Jo Winterbottom, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)