The Weekly newspaper, a popular Bangor-area publication for more than a decade, will have a new look, wider distribution and a strong emphasis on local and community news and advertising when it is delivered to homes Nov. 1.

And although it will maintain its current offices on Summer Street in Bangor, The Weekly will have a new publisher, the Bangor Daily News, and editor, Roxanne Moore Saucier. It also will have a new format, becoming a broadsheet, or standard sized newspaper.

“The larger size offers The Weekly staff greater flexibility in the design and presentation of news and advertising,” said Mark Woodward, NEWS executive editor, in announcing Saucier’s appointment and what readers could expect in the revamped Weekly.

“Our objective is to retain the essence of what makes The Weekly valuable to its readers, and improve upon it,” said Woodward. “Its emphasis will be local. We intend to strengthen its base of community news. This will give service organizations, volunteer groups and all the people who contribute so much to their towns and cities an opportunity to get their news and information into a weekly paper that will reach 48,000 homes.”

The Weekly will take advantage of the NEWS’ distribution system. It will be printed Wednesday morning and inserted that night in subscriber copies of the daily paper to be delivered Thursday morning in the immediate Bangor area. In addition, nonsubscribers in that area will have copies mailed to them in time for Friday delivery.

The Weekly will be delivered – either as an insert in the daily paper on Thursday or in the mail on Friday – to every residence in Bangor, Hermon, Veazie, Glenburn, Brewer, Eddington, Clifton, Holden, Dedham, Hampden, Old Town, Argyle, Alton, Orono, Orrington and Winterport.

In addition, The Weekly will be inserted in the paper of subscribers in the following communities: Bradley, Carmel, Costigan, Dixmont, East Corinth, Frankfort, Hudson, Kenduskeag, Levant, Milford and Stetson.

The Weekly also should be available in copies of Thursday’s NEWS sold in local stores in both groups of communities.

Since 1991, The Weekly has been published by Northeast Publishing in Presque Isle, part of the Bangor Publishing Co. When Northeast recently announced it intended to cease publication of the paper, Woodward said the NEWS decided not to let the paper disappear.

“The Weekly simply is too important to the people of this region. This is local news of the most basic and relevant kind that readers won’t find in a daily paper,” he said. The Weekly will focus on the nitty-gritty of activity in area schools and community support organizations, he added.

Readers also can expect The Weekly to be more interactive and direct as an information source, said Woodward. The paper will offer columns from a variety of community perspectives including the Eastern Agency on Aging, the humane society, real estate and law.

Local sports will receive attention, too. Don Perryman, who now works on the NEWS sports staff was once a columnist for The Weekly newspaper. His local sports column will be back in The Weekly on a sports page complete with local features and high school schedules.

Three of the six people who worked for The Weekly under Northeast’s management will make the move to the NEWS in advertising sales. “We’re very pleased to be able to maintain continuity in The Weekly advertising team,” said Wayne Lawton, NEWS advertising director. Lawton said advertising rates in The Weekly would be unchanged in the transition, and he was confident advertising accounts “will continue to receive the highest level of service.”