Journalism examinations have been postponed after the National Council for the Training of Journalists updated its coronavirus contingency plan.

The NCTJ has decided to postpone diploma exams in April 2020 for national candidates due to sit at an NCTJ exam centre.

The move does not affect candidates on an accredited course at a centre, or national candidates due to sit in-office.

All upcoming accreditation visits, face-to-face meetings and events have also been postponed by the NCTJ.

The organisation said in a statement: “The NCTJ has considered the revised guidance issued by the government on 16 March relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and we have updated our contingency plan.

“We have decided to postpone diploma exams in April 2020 for national candidates due to sit at an NCTJ exam centre.

“This does not affect candidates on an accredited course at a centre, or national candidates due to sit in-office, who should follow the arrangements of their centre or newspaper office.

“We are postponing all upcoming accreditation visits, as well as face-to-face meetings and events and will make arrangements to hold them on a future date or, where appropriate, remotely.”

The COVID-19 continues to dominate regional press front pages, with the Coventry Telegraph choosing a particularly poignant phrase from its patch’s past as its splash headline today, pictured below.

The Telegraph showed the desertion of local public spaces by recalling ‘Ghost Town’, the 1981 number one single by Coventry band The Specials.

Elsewhere, the Society of Editors has announced the postponement of the annual Satchwell Lecture, which was due to be delivered by Daily Mail editor Geordie Greig on 11 May.

SoE executive director Ian Murray said: “The government’s advice is to avoid social gatherings for the immediate future and although the Satchwell Lecture takes place in a month’s time it was felt important to make a decision now,” he added.

“We are very grateful Geordie Greig had agreed to deliver the lecture and thank him for his support.”

The Scottish Newspaper Society has written to the Scottish government calling for a 100pc business rates holiday for 12 months, and emergency funds to allow staff to be paid as revenues drop to a critical level.

The SNS also wants to see the government divert cash spent on Facebook and Google advertising to be invested in local media, and facilitate access to immediate interest-free loans for working capital.

SNS director John McLellan wrote: “We appreciate that news publishers are not alone in facing an extreme existential threat, but local publishers in particular are, and will hopefully remain, vital means of communicating reliable information about services and assistance in their communities and as such we believe they should form part of the emergency response to what appears to be a rapidly deteriorating situation.

“Advertising revenues are disappearing and as people are shopping less so too is hard copy sales revenue diminishing, and if businesses are forced to close that will mean the end of online publication upon which many people increasingly rely to verify information.

“In what are obviously very uncertain, worrying and fast-changing circumstances, local publications offer something else other than just trusted information; they are symbols of certainty and continuity and will perform a key role in returning communities to whatever becomes the new normal as and when the crisis passes, but not if they go out of business in the meantime.”