The company, which publishes national newspapers The Times and The Sun, is now in the process of selling the kit off to scrap.

News International built three new printing sites - at Broxbourne, a new facility in Knowsley and Eurocentral in Scotland – rendering its initial three facilities redundant.

Five of the presses from the original Knowsley site, plus a further two in Glasgow, have been sold to a Spanish printer in Madrid, leaving three presses at Knowsley and 16 at East London's Wapping facility.

Ian McDonald, managing director of operations at News International, had previously said that there had been a number of parties interested in the 20-year-old presses at Wapping.

But he told PrintWeek today: "Even if we gave them away free the cost of taking them apart, moving them and rebuilding them would still be expensive. In the current climate it seems the market is offering no real interest.

"In India, where the Indian Times has just put in 20 new presses, they want new machines. While in the smaller markets like Dubai they want single-width not double-width like we have at Wapping.

"A few people showed interest but never came back to us and in the end we just said let's get them out. People have picked up bits and pieces – things like stackers – but nobody is interested in the big kit."

McDonald added that removal of the presses should be completed by February next year. After which, the site will be renovated to house the editorial teams for all of News International's publications.