Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC, parent company of the Daily News and Inquirer, announced at the Newspaper Advertising Association's mediaXchange conference in Orlando that it will launch a Daily News weekend edition in October, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported yesterday.

The new edition is "the result of over a year of creative thought and a great deal of research," said Brian Tierney, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC. "It won't be the regular Daily News published another day, rather a unique product with a review of the week behind and preview of the week ahead," Philly.com reported.

The Daily News won a Pulitzer prize for investigative reporting on Monday for a year long series that exposed tactics used by a police narcotics squad.

The weekend edition will be targeted to audiences in their 20s and 30s, who are looking for more entertainment, gossip, sports and political stories and are no longer loyal readers of the Sunday Inquirer, according to a memo by Tierney, posted on PoynterOnline. The talented Pulitzer winning editorial team will be working on the weekend edition, edited by Days.

"This new publication will have a longer shelf life so people can read it all week and see something new every time they pick it up," Michael Days, editor of the Daily News, told the Philadelphia Business Journal. It will have "the same DNA" as the daily edition, and will also include a long article, along with several quick-read features.

"It will be sort of like the Daily News on steroids," Days told Philly.com. "We want to keep it light, keep it fun, and keep it interesting. The goal is to have content that will have a longer shelf life, for both Saturday and Sunday."

The edition will be available on newsstands on Saturdays, carrying the Sunday date. A price of US$1.75 is currently under consideration, according to Philly.com. Steven Grasse has been hired as local branding consultant by the Daily News to help develop and promote the edition.