The Financial Times is the UK national newspaper brand with the highest proportion of under-35s among its online audience, according to Ipsos iris data.
Some 27% of the FT’s total online UK audience in June was aged 15 to 34, the data suggests.
Ipsos iris data includes engagement with a brand’s website, app and distributed content across platforms like Apple News, MSN and Yahoo.
The next-highest proportion among UK national newspapers was at The Guardian, at 24.4%.
The Guardian had the highest absolute number of young readers, on five million in June, followed by The Sun on 4.4 million (22.2% of its total UK audience).
Press Gazette analysed the under-35 audience for the 50 titles in our latest monthly ranking of the biggest newsbrands in the UK.
The FT was ranked seventh in the top 50 for percentage of its total audience aged under 35, while The Guardian was twelfth.
The FT had a disproportionately high percentage of total time spent on its website coming from that under-35 audience (36.3%) whereas The Guardian was much lower (8%).
The FT works alongside its consulting arm FT Strategies, which this year published its second Next Gen Audiences report about the news habits of younger audiences. Young professionals are also likely to be using the FT via the company-wide deals that make up 80% of all its subscriptions.
The average percentage of audience aged under 35 across the top 50 was 20.9%, while this demographic accounted for 15.5% of time spent with the newsbrands on average.
The lowest proportion of under-35s among national newspaper brands was at the Daily Star, with 12.9%.
The Reach title told Press Gazette last year that it has the youngest audience of the three nationals at Reach, with 40% of the print and digital audience aged under 44. Based on the Ipsos iris data this likely means it has a higher proportion of readers aged 35 to 44 online and also a younger audience in print compared to the Mirror and the Express.
A visual and editorial refresh at the Daily Star saw it “reboot” its showbiz team and test out working with a horse-racing influencer last year.
Overall among the 50 biggest newsbrands, video game and entertainment news site IGN had the highest proportion of its audience aged under 35 (50.3%) followed by US-based Healthline Media (36.8%).
GB News had the smallest proportion of young among its audience, on 9.9%.
A Yougov poll carried out soon after GB News launched in 2021 found that the channel’s “professed attitudes are more resonant with Baby Boomers than with any other audience”, citing statements like people who are “proud to be British”, believe “social movements have gone too far” and “that the country has lost its moral compass”.
The Yougov poll also found that most of the star GB News presenters primarily appealed to older demographics, although those included have all since left the channel.
GB News was followed by consumer reviews brand Which? on 10.9%. Its audience skews older and a bit wealthier than average as it is most relevant for people who are making major financial decisions, for example after they own their own home. It is, however, making a concerted effort to reach 18 to 34-year-olds on social media to build its brand and fulfil its purpose of reaching consumers as broadly as possible.
The highest percentage of time spent by young audiences was at ITV (during a month that included the World Cup – like the BBC, ITV’s figures include its non-news TV entertainment content) on 39.8%. This was followed by IGN (38.6%).
The lowest percentage of time spent by young people was at the Daily Star (2.4% of all minutes spent with its content in June), GB News (2.9%) and Which? (3.2%) followed by several national newspaper brands including the Daily Mail (4%), the Daily Express (4.4%) and The Telegraph (5.3%).
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