A regional daily has relaunched its rural living supplement as part of a revamp of its weekend offering which also sees changes to politics and sport coverage.

The Yorkshire Post has refreshed its Country Week pullout, which now features extra pages, a column from TV vet Julian Norton, extra pages on equestrianism and a new Rural Life feature focusing on villages across the county.

The revamped supplement, spearheaded by agricultural correspondent Ben Barnett, also contains a Q&A spot with agricultural experts, cycle route guides for Yorkshire, and a new agronomy column.

Each week, it will be wrapped in a live image shot taken by one of the Post’s award-winning photographers.

Other changes made by the Post to its weekend edition have also been include a weekly in-depth interview with politicians from the Post’s Westminster lobby correspondent Kate Langston and political editor James Reed, which is aimed at helping readers to “get to know more about the people behind the politician”.

Political coverage is further increased with a hand-drawn satirical sketch – occupying half a broadsheet page – of the week’s happenings from in-house illustrator Graeme Bandeira.

There are also changes to the sport section, with the Post publishing a sit-down portrait with a different sports star each week, as well as a Sporting Nostalgia section featuring a colour piece from one of its staff writers.

A full page of obituaries and acknowledgements also appears.

The changes have been promoted with a marketing campaign across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, designed and led by the Post’s team.

The newspaper partnered with well-known Yorkshire brand Bettys for launch week with a series of recipe cards and giveaways.

Editor James Mitchinson said: “We are very pleased with the improvements we have made to the Yorkshire Post. This has been months in the planning, and has been a concerted team effort.

“We were delighted when the recent ABC audit showed we were the best-performing regional daily in the UK, and wanted to pull out all the stops to up our game another notch. We won’t rest on our laurels.

“Early feedback has been great from readers and our commercial partners who are as proud of the Yorkshire Post as we are. Of course, I’ll continue to listen to those people, and work with my teams – who put their hearts and souls into the Yorkshire Post week in, week out – to move the bar ever higher.”