Weekend Herald Relaunch

New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME) is excited to announce New Zealand's flagship Saturday newspaper, The Weekend Herald, is relaunching on Saturday, August 8.

The move to refresh the respected publication will further strengthen the dominance and relevance of NZME's weekend assets in the marketplace and make weekend reading more rewarding than ever before.

The Weekend Herald and Herald on Sunday editor, Miriyana Alexander says "The innovative redesign, refreshed content mix and new look and feel in each section will ensure The Weekend Herald stays relevant for our readers, while highlighting the quality work of our journalistic team.

"The Weekend Herald is a trusted voice that influences our readers' weekends. The relaunch serves to make the newspaper more accessible by using appealing and easy to read design principles, an expanded focus on investigative feature stories, sport and business, while continuing in its long tradition of breaking relevant news to Kiwis."

NZME's Group Director Commercial, Sandra King says, "NZME has a very strong media presence during the 'active consumption period' during the weekends from breakfast to afternoon. It's in the crucial period before midday, where weekends are shaped and decisions are made, when The Weekend Herald is pivotal in talking to consumers when they are in an active consumption mode. They are more likely to see an ad in The Weekend Herald about a special promotion or event and act on it that day.

"The refresh will make The Weekend Herald and NZME's overall weekend offering of print, radio, digital, events, experiential and GrabOne - more attractive to consumers while helping clients reach their audience more effectively and in a consistent and timely manner."

King says NZME connects with over half a million New Zealanders unduplicated over the weekend across the Weekend Herald and Herald on Sunday.

"When you combine that with 1.8 million in radio over the average week and 2.3 million each month across NZME's leading digital assets, we are reaching a massive audience and creating the perfect platform for any campaign wanting to influence weekend behaviour and mind-sets."

The Weekend Herald will move to a four section broadsheet with more national and international news from Saturday, August 8.

The News and World section (Section A) will expand, offering readers additional national and international news focused on the most relevant and breaking coverage. The World section will now have the premium back cover position, meeting the revamped features section in the middle. Great graphic treatments will bring life to stories and make for easier comprehension of facts and figures.

The Sport section (Section B) will cover a wider range of sports with an emphasis on 'Action Weekend'. The revamped stand-alone section will include design-led features and profiles, incorporating graphic-rich coverage making it more prominent. A new 'World of Sport' column will provide readers with a quirky take on the sports news of the week and a fishing column will be reintroduced. National and international sport will feature prominently in the section with room to focus on big sporting events, such as the Rugby World Cup.

Business will also have a stand-alone section (Section C) with an increase in investigative stories and thought-provoking business features canvasing the week's big business issues. Also added is a page two Business Spy column highlighting the latest business comings and goings, events and gossip of the week. Careers will be positioned coming in from the back of Section C.

A fourth broadsheet section has been introduced that includes True Commercial which was previously in Section C. True Commercial will continue to deliver a 360 degree view of the New Zealand commercial property for lease and sale and businesses for sale in New Zealand.

The new-look Weekend Herald will continue to include the very popular specialist sections including Herald Homes, Canvas, Weekend and Driven.