Dear Ofcom: Methodology matters
Opinion
Ofcom’s Media Nations findings do not truly reflect the complex landscape of our news consumption. Here’s why.
Last week, The Media Leader reported on the Media Nations study. According to the Ofcom survey, only 34% of Brits over 16 years old read news brands on print and online nowadays.
While I find these results disappointing, looking at the methodology, I’m not surprised.
Simple terms can be slippery. Indeed, Newsworks researched trust in 2023 for this very reason. Trust is an extraordinarily important term for advertisers; it’s a deep human emotion that guides action.
However, when used in research, it can mean many things. Is the question asking whether a company is trusted to do the morally right thing? To deliver profit to stakeholders? To deliver products that won’t go wrong? It’s not clear.
Our study deconstructed the term “trust” and found four key components that are wildly different: familiarity, fame, risk and competency.
Different strategies are required, depending on how brands fare against each challenge. Clarity and even context may be required to get closer to the truth.
What does ‘news’ mean?
“Which of the following platforms do you use for news nowadays?” — the question used in Ofcom’s study — arguably falls into a similar trap.
News brands reflect a wealth of journalism. However, they can often be constrained not only by their original newspaper format but also by perceptions of just being about “hard news”.
The reality is they can be accessed on a plethora of media touchpoints (podcasts, social media and websites, to name but a few), while news journalists discuss topics from food to relationships to music and everything in between.
It’s therefore vital that research into the nation’s news consumption shows this complex landscape.
The joint industry currency Pamco has a very carefully constructed questionnaire, including a face-to-face element. It also includes online passive usage data collected by Ipsos iris — essential for accurately reflecting real behaviour in a way recall alone can’t.
This combined methodology far better demonstrates the reality of news readership today: 80% of the UK read news brands monthly, equating to 44m people, and 37m a week (67%) and 22m a day (41%).
Data is vital to getting to the truth
Demonstrating the discrepancies that can arise through relying on just recall, my first study with Newsworks was to explore the engagement young people had with news.
Newsworks was caught between two narratives: news brands were innovating and celebrating their relationships with young news readers, and yet advertisers and agencies believed that young people didn’t read the news.
To get to the truth, the methodology mattered.
Young people don’t read news? Research from Newsworks suggests otherwise
At the very start of our questionnaire, we asked young people: “Where do you get your news?” Only 16% claimed to get their news online from news brands.
However, Ipsos iris clickstream data, which collected every click young people aged 15-29 made on their devices (6m URLs collected in all), told a very different story. In fact, 72% were turning to news publishers across a range of stories, from celebrity news, money and wider horizons to breaking stories around politics and wars.
Not only did this study reveal the real reach of young news readers, but it also proved that “news” doesn’t reflect just the serious stories we would define as “hard news”.
Those who joined the Newsworks Speakeasy at Mad//Fest last month heard from many of the UK’s brilliant journalists on topics as varied as food, dating and fashion. It was a healthy reminder of the breadth of journalism exploring the trends, innovation and meaning behind our culture.
I love an Ofcom report — however, it would be remiss of me not to challenge these reach figures. As our industry joint industry currency, Pamco remains the best source of measurement for news readership.
Heather Dansie is research and insight director at Newsworks