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.

Tax cuts teased by the UK Government at the end of February headlined the Chancellor’s Spring Budget as a 2% cut to National Insurance was announced. As such, reader engagement with Personal Finance content across Ozone grew as consumers turned to trusted sources to work out what the budget meant to them.

Featuring a headline 2% cut to National Insurance, last Wednesday’s Spring Budget grew reader engagement with Personal Finance content by almost a quarter. This was driven by 2.5x higher Personal Taxes page views as well as a +71% rise for the Saving topic.
The budget also boosted Business & Finance, with page views up +3%. Additional growth for the content came following Nationwide’s surprise £2.9bn bid for Virgin Money, with 2.6x page views growth for the Merger & Acquisitions topic.
Also last week, the latest series of Celebrity Big Brother – the first since ITV revived the show – began to drive Reality TV page views, which increased by a quarter.

World Book Day, the annual worldwide celebration of books and reading created by UNESCO in 1995 to promote reading for pleasure among children and young people, took place last Thursday. As the event was celebrated nationwide, reader engagement with Books & Literature, with page views for the content area up +18% week on week.
Finally, Mother’s Day on Sunday gave British families the opportunity to spoil mum. While Shopping content page views grew marginally, up +3% overall week on week, there was significant growth for the Flower Shopping and Gifting topics, which grew by 2.5x and almost a third respectively.

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
Mother’s Day: Celebrating Mother’s Day drove engagement with our Events & Attractions content – including the Bars & Restaurants topic which grew by almost a fifth – as families sought out ways to spoil mum. Flower Shopping also bloomed, growing by more than a quarter.
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

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

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