A weekly newspaper is a general-news or current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly newspaper is published once every two weeks. Weekly newspapers tend to have smaller circulations than daily newspapers, and often cover smaller territories, such as one or more smaller towns, a rural county, or a few neighborhoods in a large city. Frequently, weeklies cover local news and engage in community journalism.

Most weekly newspapers follow a similar format as daily newspapers (i.e., news, sports, obituaries, etc.). However, the primary focus is on news within a coverage area. The publication dates of weekly newspapers in North America vary, but often they come out in the middle of the week (Wednesday or Thursday). However, in the United Kingdom where they come out on Sundays, the weeklies which are called Sunday newspapers, are often national in scope and have substantial circulations (20 to 50 per cent higher on average than their daily sister publications).

Other types of news publications come out weekly on newsprint but are not considered general newspapers. These cover specific topics, such as sports (e.g., The Sporting News) or business (e.g., Barron's), and have larger circulations and cover much larger geographic-coverage areas. Alternatively, other news publications come out weekly on magazine-style print but are still considered general newspapers (e.g. The Economist).