The Financial Times could expand the Thomson Reuters brand and give its reporters additional exposure since, unlike Bloomberg, which bought Businessweek in 2009, the company does not own a regular magazine. Thomson Reuters, partly a British company, and The Financial Times also have large footprints in Asia.

Image Like most newspapers, The Financial Times is struggling with an industrywide decline in print advertising revenue. Credit... Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg News, via Getty Images

But first, the paper needs to be put on the block. Pearson is about to lose two of its top executives, raising speculation the paper could be for sale. Analysts value The Financial Times Group at about $1.2 billion, well within the reach of Bloomberg L.P., which in 2011 had revenue of $7.6 billion, and Thomson Reuters, which posted revenue of $13.8 billion.

The paper has a successful digital strategy, and analysts have said that its strict online pay wall is considered a financial success. But like most newspapers, it is struggling in an industrywide decline in print advertising revenue. In the three months ending Oct. 1, the paper’s total paid circulation exceeded 600,000, more than half of which was from digital subscriptions. In its most recent earnings report, Pearson said it expected profit to decline because of a sluggish advertising market and “the shift from print to digital.”

Marjorie Scardino, Pearson’s longtime chief executive, who once said the paper would be sold “over my dead body,” is departing on Dec. 31. Rona Fairhead, chief executive of The Financial Times Group, will leave at the end of April. Both executives had championed the print businesses. A successor to Ms. Fairhead has yet to be named, though one person close to the company pointed to John Ridding, the chief executive of the paper.

One media banker with knowledge of the company expects the paper to be shopped around early next year. John Fallon, who is to take over from Ms. Scardino on Jan. 1 as chief of Pearson, rose through the educational business and does not share his predecessor’s fondness for print. In October, the company merged its Penguin publishing house with Random House, owned by Bertelsmann of Germany.

In an interview in October, Mr. Fallon said The Financial Times was a “valued and valuable” asset that fit nicely into Pearson’s overall business. He added that “the portfolio of Pearson, it’s constantly changing and evolving” and “we never rule out anything.”