Ozone’s Reading the Nation insight series provides a seven-day view of the topical news and seasonal events driving reader engagement across our nationwide audience of more than 40m online consumers.
Last week, Brits nationwide were shocked and saddened as Catherine, Princess of Wales personally announced her cancer fight. After weeks of speculation about the Princess’ wellbeing, the bravery of her deeply moving statement was hailed. As such, reader engagement with related content, including Medical Health, increased.
Topical News
The Princess of Wales’ shock cancer announcement last Friday saw reader engagement with Medical Health grow by more than half as our premium publishers followed the breaking news story. As we saw with King Charles’ cancer revelation earlier this year, there was significant engagement growth for the Cancer and Oncology topics, up 6x and 8x respectively.
Also last week, the publication of a report by The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman into state pension inequality for women drove Careers page views to +52% growth, driven by growth of three-quarters for the Retirement topic.
Elsewhere, the unveiling of a new artwork by Banksy and the furore over Nike’s “playful update” to the flag of St. George on England’s new football kit drove Fine Art to growth of a fifth.
Seasonal Events
The midpoint of the holy month of Ramadan and the incoming Easter bank holiday weekend drove expected seasonal growth with Religion & Spirituality and Family & Relationships content, with page views for the two categories growing by +16% and +7% respectively last week.
With only weeks to go until the tax year ends, ISA season has continued to drive reader engagement with Personal Finance content. Driven by +28% growth in Consumer Banking page views, the category rose +14% last week.
Finally, the school holidays, which may have just begun or are about to, drove growth with Education, with page views up +14% week on week. With national offer day for the 2024 reception intake coming up, Primary Education grew +82%.
Coming Up
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
June
Champions League Final: Football page views grew +52% in June last year as Man City won the Champions League final. The 2024 final takes place on Saturday, 1 June.
EURO 2024: Expect Football engagement to be c.30% higher in June 2024 when UEFA EURO 2024 kicks off on Friday, 14 June. The final takes place on Sunday, 14 July.
Father’s Day: Planning for the perfect Father’s Day present grew Gifting page views by more than a quarter last year. This year, the occasion takes place on Sunday, 16 June.
Glastonbury Festival: Headlined this year by Dua Lipa, SZA and Coldplay, expect Festivals page views to increase 3.5x on Glastonbury and the start of summer festival season.
