With the year’s first month over, Alex Maude, Ozone’s lead on our regular Reading the Nation insight series, looks back at January to the content where reader engagement was expected to grow and the new areas where interest is likely to increase in the coming months
The first month of 2024 has flown by… how the heck did that happen? The year begins and before you know it – it’s February – love is in the air and we’re already planning ahead for spring, Easter and beyond. With the year’s first month out of the way, we look back at January’s key reader engagement trends.
New year, new me boosted by King’s health scare
In a busy start for the year, we’ve seen reader engagement across the Premium Web grow in all the right places. In line with seasonal expectations, there’s been increased interest in content about health, wealth and other new year, new me areas, such as Healthy Living and Personal Finance with the former rising by more than half in January vs. December, and the latter up by almost a quarter. In more topical news, headlines about King Charles’ surgery for an enlarged prostate drove the Men’s Health topic to four-fold growth month on month. The King’s early cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment will no doubt raise awareness among men to get checked early, in a positive for health care issues.
Consumers eye bigger ticket purchases
Mirroring 2024’s early green shoots for the UK housing market, with falling mortgage rates and growing house prices fuelling increased interest in buying and selling, we’ve seen stronger than expected reader engagement with Property content. While page views for the content increased by +19% month on month, they were more than a fifth higher than the monthly average based on the past three years.
Other content areas related to big ticket consumer spending in the year ahead demonstrated growth levels even above what we expected. Notably – and following big bouncebacks in 2023 for the two sections – reader engagement with Travel and Automotive content increased in January, with page views up by a quarter and +22% respectively. Both were also up significantly compared to the three-year January average.
Sport gets off to a flyer
Elsewhere – and in what promises to be yet another pulsating year of sport – January got 2024 off to a flyer. First, teenage sensation Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler lit up the okie and blew up Darts. Page views for the sport increased massively with 3.9x growth in January. Then, sporting veteran Ronnie O’Sullian rocketed to a record eight Masters title to more than double engagement with the sport. Finally, the Australian Open once again aced January page views for Tennis, with 3.3x growth.
With the UEFA European Championships and Paris Games coming up from June to September, expect 2024’s huge summer of sport to build on last year’s annual growth of more than a third for our premium publishers’ Sport content.
Looking ahead
It’s February now, so looking ahead to March, April and May below is a selection of seasonal events where reader engagement growth with content across the Premium Web can be expected…
March
ISA season: Typically, Personal Finance page views will grow by a quarter on the Budget and ISA season. The Saving and Personal Investing topics, up +40% and +25% on average, will drive growth
Cheltenham: March’s Cheltenham Festival will drive Horse Racing interest with topic page views 3.5x higher on average month on month. In April, the Grand National will boost engagement again
Easter: On average, engagement with Bank Holiday content grows by 3.8x in March the Easter lead up as consumers seek out the best ways to spend their time away from work
April
The Grand National: Horse Racing page views in April are 2.5x higher than the monthly avg. on Grand National interest
Back to school: On average, the post-Easter return to school will grow Items for Children page views by +29%
The London Marathon: Running page views grew more than four-fold in April 2023 on London Marathon interest
May
Eurovision: Typically, Music & Audio page views will grow by +38% in May on Eurovision interest. As an appointment-to-view TV event, the content will drive related Television growth of c.20%
Football season ends: The end of the season and cup finals drive Football engagement to avg. May growth of a third. Football interest will continue into June and July with the Euros
Spring Bank Holiday: On average, Bank Holiday page views increase by +28% in May on the Spring Bank Holiday
Easter and Ramadan
Next month, the clocks 'spring forward' during long bank holiday weekend, bringing extra joy the nation as we collectively celebrate time away from work with family and friends. With the changing seasons, and Easter and Ramadan taking place in March, our latest insights delve into the content areas and trigger points where reader engagement growth can be expected in the lead up to these celebratory occasions
Want more first-party data insight?
Planning Ahead for 2024 with Reading the Nation is our third annual guide to what our nationwide audience is reading across the premium web and it’s packed with content. Created to showcase the sheer scale and value of our unique first-party data, the guide provides insight into the seasonal and topical events driving reader engagement with content across the Ozone platform.
