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, the London Marathon fired the starting gun on anticipated reader engagement growth with Healthy Living content, driven by 3.8x higher Running topic page views. Expect further growth for the content across the spring and summer months.
Topical News
A high court ruling upholding a prayer ban at the Michaela community school – founded by Katharine Birbalsingh, dubbed ‘Britain’s toughest headteacher’ – drove increased reader engagement with Religion & Spirituality content last week. The debate about the ruling saw page views for the category rise by more than 50% week on week.
Elsewhere in the past seven days, Taylor Swift’s surprise double album drop, with the release of The Tortured Poets Department quickly followed by The Anthology, drove Music & Audio to a +42% rise.
Positive spring house sales, pointing to a housing market bounceback, drove Property to +13% growth. In Q1 2024, category engagement is almost a fifth higher annually.
Seasonal Events
Last week, Education rose to the top of the class for reader engagement growth, with 4.9m page views up +88%, on national offer day for reception and junior school places. Within the content, the Primary Education topic grew significantly, with page views 2.8x higher.
As expected, there was seasonal growth for Healthy Living content on increased interest in the London Marathon, which took place on Sunday, 21 April. Overall, 12.1m page views increased +12% driven by 3.8x higher reader engagement with the Running topic.
Last year’s marathon triggered higher Healthy Living engagement across Q2 and Q3, with the two quarters equaling almost 60% of annual page views (as highlighted in our health and wellness trends insights).
Coming Up
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.
July
Wimbledon: 31.7m Tennis page views in July 2023 grew +330% month on month on significant reader interest in the Championships Wimbledon.
British Grand Prix: 10.7m Auto Racing/Formula 1 page views last July when the British Grand Prix took place were +25% higher vs. 2023 season average.
The Olympic Games: When it began in July 2021, the Tokyo Games drove Olympic Sports page to significant 12x growth month on month
The Euros: Last July, interest in the start of the Women’s World Cup drove 305m monthly Football page views – the second highest level ever
