The sun might be struggling to come out to play, but sport’s summer sizzler is finally here. Last week’s hugely anticipated kick off for the men’s European football championships boosted reader engagement with our publishers; premium Football punditry.

Our latest issue continues to follow the 2024 UK Election as online readers turn to trusted sources across our Premium Web platform to follow news, comment and analysis.

Topical News

• The unseasonably chilly start to June has given Brits carte blanche to do what they do best: complain about the weather. Whatever the forecast, summer officially starts this week and with sunnier spells on the way reader engagement with Weather content rose by +10%. There was associated growth for the Home & Garden and Hobbies & Interests categories driven by double-digit growth for the Gardening and DIY topics respectively.

• The 2024 summer of sport began last week as the men’s Euros kicked off. Defeat for Scotland in the opening match against Germany and victory for England against Serbia drove reader engagement with Football to +5% growth. Almost 55m page views +20% higher vs. the 2024 average.

Seasonal Events

• Eid al-Adha, the ‘Festival of Sacrifice’ in the Islamic faith, began last week to boost reader engagement with Religion & Spirituality content, with page views up +15%.

• Elsewhere, Shopping and Family & Relationships, rose +7% and +5% respectively on Father’s Day interest.

UK Election 2024

• With campaigning for the 2024 UK General Election passing the halfway point last week, each of the main political parties unveiled their manifesto pledges. While reader engagement with Politics content fell week on week, more than 65m page views were still +23% higher compared to the weekly average this year. Frequency, at 10.6 views per user, was also +10% higher vs. the 2024 average.

• With the focus of the party manifesto pledges trained towards more positive policies, rather than those with negative connotations, there was more significant growth for areas like the Economy, Healthcare and last week’s hottest topic – Climate, up +89% week on week.

• Last week’s manifesto launches drove readership growth of +43% and +17% for neutral and positive sentiment editorial respectively. With a plethora of policy pledges offered up, share of voice among the parties remained consistent. However, at least one voting intention poll placed Reform UK ahead of the Conservative party for the first time. 

• While the share of voice for the Lib Dems (10%) and Reform UK (9%) is close, the focus of attention between the two is disparate. The showier Nigel Farage is mentioned in twice as many articles as his party (3.8k vs. 1.8k) while the more slapstick approach taken by Ed Davey means he’s only mentioned in a fifth as many as the Lib Dems.

• Among younger voters, the Climate has emerged as a top policy priority (i149). The Conservative manifesto pledge to reintroduce national service for 18-year-olds has also kept Defence high on the agenda among readers aged 18-24, indexing at i125.

• 55+ readers are more likely to be focused on the he Economy, driven by concerns over Labour’s lack of reassurance around changes to inheritance tax and pension lifetime allowance (i108). Healthcare also stands out as a key priority for them, indexing at i103.

Coming Up

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.

August

• Edinburgh Fringe: Fine Art page views will grow with the Theatre topic increasing by more than 50%. The festival will also drive Comedy Events, from Events & Attractions, to c.3x growth.

• Exam results: A-level and GCSE results drive page views for Exam Results, from Education, to 3.9x growth.

• Paris Games: Paralympics page views were 7.9x higher than normal during the Tokyo Games in August 2021.