After spending hundreds of hours deliberating and thousands of pounds on consultants’ fees in the search for a new home only to decide to stay put in its Wapping HQ, News International has now declared it cannot afford to upgrade the east London site. The plan had been to improve the sprawling complex next summer and eventually move in News Corp family members like Dow Jones, MySpace and Harper Collins. But according to an internal memo from News Corp’s Europe and Asia CEO James Murdoch, seen by Reuters and MediaGuardian, those plans have been shelved because of the adverse economic conditions. He says: “With the low level of visibility we have of the medium term for the business, this is the right thing to do. We will advise you of the likely new timescales when visibility improves.”

This could be seen as a blow to News Corp.‘s (NYSE: NWS) plans to further integrate its media brands and create synergies where possible—with every executive in one building it’s not far to go for that breakfast meeting about that content-sharing deal. The renovation plans would have seen NI’s four national newspapers, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and News of the World moved to other offices for the three years while Wapping is upgraded. NI staff I speak to often say Wapping is a good location, but in need of some TLC. So for the time being Times staff will still be greeted by a cheerfully 1980s-style rock garden/water feature as they make their way into work each morning.