News content is diverse
There is a myth that young people are only interested in celebrity news. Celebrity news matters — but they have a broad repertoire of readership far beyond entertainment.
13 news categories for advertisers to engage in
By applying Natural Language and Network Analysis to the more than 10,000 news URLs visited, we have been able to cluster news into 13 categories. There is a broad and rich spectrum of content where advertisers can connect with young people. It is also a healthy reminder that young people have a wide and diverse news appetite. It isn’t all showbiz gossip!
Interact with the data map below to uncover the content categories that young people are exploring, examples of the specific stories that fill these categories and the relationships between them.
1. Relatable stories about real people
From consumer rights to entertaining stories about everyday people, the most popular type of news are the stories that could happen to anyone.
2. Celebrity
News that centres on the rich, famous and powerful is hugely popular. From the royals, to politicians, influencers and football stars, we want the inside gossip.
3. Screen and entertainment
Technology dominates across gaming, film and boxset shows as well as product and expert reviews.
4. Global impact: US politics and climate change
News that reveals the science and the dramatic impact of climate change resonates, as well as environmental solutions, from oat milk to behaviour changes.
5. Politics
The world of political news covers the breaking news and political detail both at home and abroad that affects us all.
6. Money matters
The cost-of-living crisis impacts many young people. Money matters covers the broad spectrum of finance news, consumer rights and advice with plenty of cost-saving hacks.
7. Health and medicine
Both mental and physical wellbeing feature heavily, with hacks to live and feel better and dramatic breakthroughs in medical science all being of interest.
8. Wider horizons
Young people are at a crucial life stage of learning and engage with news that offers career, travel and study advice, all of which could be life changing.
9. War in Gaza
The conflict in the Middle East has great interest for young people, including the UK’s and the world’s response to the crisis.
10. Football
From the stars to the stats, football remains the nation’s favourite sport.
11. Rugby and cricket
Closely following football, both women’s and men’s cricket and rugby coverage resonate, both on the pitch and the world of each sport beyond the field.
12. Motor news
For those that value their vehicles, both the cars on the road and the sport on the track, news about motors is of interest.
13. War in Ukraine
The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine grabs attention from readers, both the strategic decisions and the personal toll on both nations.
Both hard and soft news resonate
Our passive data collected all the stories that young people read over the month. However, to understand which headlines best captured their attention, we ran a test, sharing a selection of headlines across our news categories to see what resonated.
Across the eight categories below reflecting a full range of subject matters, on average, 75% of young people said they would read hard news headlines, while 72% said they would read soft news headlines.
This tells advertisers that while subjects such as showbiz and entertainment is of course hugely popular with young people, the major stories of the day still matter. They do not consider themselves to be the hard news avoiders they can often be portrayed to be. Neither should advertisers.
