The premier regional press awards for the North-East are to go ahead after all this year – but in a dramatically scaled-down guise.

Earlier this year, organisers of the Tom Cordner North-East Press Awards announced that the contest, usually held in April, would be postponed until the autumn.

Now they have confirmed that the 28th annual awards will go ahead, but with just ten categories down from the previous 22.

There will also be no entry fees, while the tradtional awards night dinner will be replaced by an evening buffet.

Organisers say the changes “reflect the background of job losses and other re-organisation in the industry over the past year and the economic climate.”

The event will still seek to underline the “founding spirit” of the awards, with the spotlight on the original Tom Cordner trophy for the North-East Young Journalist of the Year.

Bernice Saltzer, chair of the organising group, said: “For most people in the regional press, this is a difficult time to be celebrating, but we aim to underline the essence of the Cordners’.

“They began as a tribute by grass roots journalists to the talent and dedication of fellow North-East journalists. That is still something to be celebrated.”

Entries will cover work published by North-East newspapers, magazines and their associated websites so far in 2009.

The categories and other details are still being finalised and will be distributed soon to newsrooms and put on the Cordner website.

The first presentation was made in 1980, in memory of Tom Cordner, news editor of the Hartlepool Mail, who died suddenly in 1976 aged only 38.

The organisers say the scale and format of next year’s Cordner Awards is being kept under review.