News & Resources

Ciao for NoW?

The closure of the News of the World after 168 years of near total domination of the Sunday red tops market has given a rare opportunity for rival tabloids to reach out to new readers. With the phone hacking scandal still fresh in consumers' minds, the coming months are likely to be one of the greatest tests faced by News International and the Murdoch Empire as they attempt to minimise their readers' flight to other newspapers before the seemingly inevitable introduction of a Sunday version of The Sun.

TGI data can aid marketers and media owners in identifying those regular Sunday red top readers and according to the latest survey: 57% of all regular Sunday tabloids consumers read the News of the World. This far surpasses the 30% that read the Sunday Mirror, 11% for the People and 7% for the Daily Star on Sunday. While one in four regular NoW readers read at least one more Sunday tabloid, over 3 million of them read no other Sunday newspaper at all, giving rival red tops a significant opportunity to capture the NoW's former readers.

This group of 3 million regular readers of the News of the World are potentially a lucrative target for marketers and advertisers in the UK. Their family income is over £1000 more per year than the average for a Sunday red top reader and they are 50% more likely than the average British adult to hold the attitude of "spending money without thinking".

These former NoW readers are also particularly receptive to advertising: they are 24% more likely than average to "generally like advertising" and a quarter more likely to pay most attention to advertisements in newspapers. This disposition to spend freely, coupled with a general interest in newspaper advertising gives both advertisers and media owners even greater reason to court this sub-group.

Moreover, 28% of regular Sunday red top readers that only picked-up the News of the World rely on newspapers to keep them informed - suggesting that there are close to a million consumers that are most likely to switch to an alternative Sunday title.

Each of the remaining three major Sunday red tops could each justifiably aim to convert a proportion of the NoW's readership:

-          The 13% of News of the World readers that are "very interested in film and video" may opt for the Daily Star Sunday, whose readers are 75% more likely than the average red top readership to be interested in this.

-          The Daily Mirror is the Sunday red-top most likely to be read by consumers in the ABC1 social grade and this may be the publication to attract the 37% of NoW readers who are also in this demographic.

-          Readers of The People are 20% more likely to be "very interested in entertainment guides" than readers of other red tops and perhaps this title would convert the 14% of NoW that are also very interested by this subject.

While the scandal at News International seems likely to run and run, the News of the World's former readers are faced with an immediate decision whether to switch to an alternative publication or perhaps wait until the next incarnation of a Murdoch Sunday tabloid appears.