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, love for our premium publishers’ Valentine’s Day content, including Flower Shopping, Gifting and Romantic Getaways, drove page views growth. And with spring around the corner, sprucing up the homestead in preparation for a new season boosted Home & Garden.

For the third consecutive week, Music & Audio was our biggest growing area. While there was continuing interest in the Taylor and Travis Super Bowl show, the passing of radio broadcaster Steve Wright contributed to reader engagement growth of a third last week.
A modest +2% growth for Television was boosted by hype around the rumoured return of Gavin & Stacey. A potential festive special for the telly favourite drove 25x higher Christmas TV page views last week.
Finally, Sunset Boulevard and star Nicole Scherzinger cleaned up at WhatsOnStage Awards to drive growth of almost a fifth for the Theatre topic from Fine Art.

Last week’s hump day Valentine’s Day rose reader engagement with related content. Within Shopping, Flower Shopping bloomed with +52% growth, while Gifting grew by +13%. From Travel, page views for the Romantic Getaways topic more than doubled.
With a month to go until March 20th’s spring equinox, reader engagement with Home & Garden is rising as British consumers look to spruce up their homes, inside and out. The content category was up by almost a quarter overall last week, key topics driving growth included Home Improvement (+50%), Home Appliances (+32%) Interior Decorating (+25%). Notably, Outdoor Decorating also more than doubled.

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