BBC News has postponed plans to cut 450 jobs as it faces the demands of covering the coronavirus pandemic.
Director general Tony Hall, who told staff on Wednesday said continuing with the plan would be "inappropriate".
The job losses were announced in January and were part of a proposal to complete a £80m savings target by 2022.
Outlets due to be hit include BBC Two's Newsnight, BBC Radio 5 Live and the World Service's World Update programme.
Wednesday’s suspension comes after the BBC delayed the introduction of means-testing of the licence fee for over-75s because of the pandemic.
Lord Hall said "we're suspending the consultation on those saving plans".
He told staff: "We've got to get on with doing the job that you're doing really brilliantly.
"It would be inappropriate. We haven't got the resource to plough ahead with those plans at the moment, so we'll come back to that at some point.
"But for the moment we just want to make sure you are supported and you've got the resources to do the job that you and your colleagues are doing amazingly."
Some programmes, such as Politics Live and Victoria Derbyshire, have been taken off air to prioritise coronavirus coverage, and several radio networks are sharing news bulletins.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel