Weekend print newspapers offer a recreational oasis for “digitally exhausted” readers to slow down and recover from everyday life.

That’s the philosophy behind the relaunch of weekend editions of Austria’s Kleine Zeitung – literally small newspaper – in a project to “awaken the desire to read and live”.

Marketing head Andrea Rachbauer says in an INMA blog that the Graz publisher looked to strengthen the position of the printed newspaper, take into account changing reading habits, and provide readers even more information and support in their everyday lives.

“Reading attention and the desire to read are particularly strong during the weekend,” she says. “The printed newspaper is also assigned as having a slowdown effect on the weekend. It creates spaces for recovery from everyday life and becomes a recreational oasis for the ‘digitally exhausted’.

“It is an invitation to slow down reading and enjoyment – without a screen and without the fast, continuous stimulus that characterises the weekdays.”

Newly designed weekend editions have been upgraded in terms of content and design, and use a magazine-style layout to appeal to a younger audience.

Rachbauer says the publisher hopes to strengthen its position and unique selling proposition with a focus on younger and more female-focused content – more family, health and culinary content, and a focus on the Alpe-Adria region in the country’s south-east. Surveys have shown these to be valuable key topics for readers as well as relevant advertisers.

“The relaunch of the weekend editions focuses on reader interests and was realised in an interdisciplinary project approach with the editorial know-how and market insights of the advertising and reader market,” she says.

“The content concept as well as the new layout are more airy, lighter, more feminine, younger, and reflects a magazine layout.” The new weekend editions were created “with a lot of creativity and tact”, including feedback from reader focus groups, and in “many discussions” with editorial staff, advertising department and reader market.

“They have a clearly perceptible difference compared to the weekday editions.”

The differentiation is also strong in terms of content: Saturday has a strong service and leisure character and offers orientation, overviews, and suggestions for an actively designed and eventful weekend. Sunday focuses on the beautiful, challenging, and interesting topics of modern life and allows more depth of content and interaction in the form of guest and reader contributions.

Rachbauer says the launch was accompanied by campaign in two directions – to arousing curiosity, and in a second phase, picking up innovations and product details in the subjects, with readers invited to discover them with a special offer for the weekend print subscription.