(1) Did you see a Morning Paper Yesterday ?

About ten million morning newspapers are sold daily in Great Britain and about twenty four million civilians see morning newspapers. To obtain information about the proportions of the population and of different groups of the population who see morning newspapers, informants were asked “Did you see a morning paper yesterday?” “Yesterday” referred to the day before the interview took place, and exception was made in the case of those people who were interviewed on a Monday. These were asked “Did you see a morning paper last Saturday?” Interviewing was spread over a period of four weeks beginning on June 17th 1943. The results, therefore, do not refer to any particular day but represent an average for this period.

73% of those asked said they saw a morning newspaper “yesterday”, and 27% had not seen one. While the survey was in progress news of the invasion of Sicily was reported in the press. A separate analysis was made of the interviews taking place on the three days after the day this news was first reported. It was found that 77% of the informants interviewed on those days said they had seen a morning paper “yesterday”. It should be noted that the people interviewed on the three days concerned do not necessarily form a representative sample of the population and that there are differences in the newspaper-reading habits of different groups. However, it is clear that the news of the invasion did not alter normal reading habits to such an extent as to invalidate the results, if these are to be regarded as showing normal habits at about the time the inquiry took place.

Analysis by Sex

It is clear that men are greater newspaper readers than women. One-third of the women did not see a paper.

There are also marked differences between age groups.

Analysis by Age

The youngest age group shows a relatively low proportion answering “Yes”. It should be noted in this connection that only young people who had left school were included in this group. The figure might perhaps be higher if those still at school had been included. It will be seen later that the higher income groups and those with higher education saw newspapers more frequently than other groups, and children over the age of 14 who are still at school are drawn largely from these classes. Up to date statistics giving the number of schoolchildren over fourteen are not at present available, but pre-war figures show that about one-fifth of all persons in this age group were school children.

Morning papers were seen more frequently by people in the middle age groups (41-45 and 46-65) than by older people or younger people.

Analysis by Sex and Age

The two sexes show roughly the same pattern, the old and the young of both sexes seeing papers less frequently than the middle groups. However, there is no statistically significant difference between the proportions of men aged 18-40 and 41-65 who saw papers, whereas women aged 18-40 show a lower proportion seeing them than women aged 41-65.

Analysis by Marital Status

This reflects the differences shown between different age-groups. Married men show a higher proportion than single men and married women a higher proportion than single women seeing morning papers.

Analysis of results for married and widowed people by those with and without children shows no statistically significant difference.

Analysis by Economic Groups

Informants were classified in different economic groups according to the wage rate or salary of the chief wage-earner of their families. Group 1 is the lowest economic group and is composed of members of families having no wage-earners or income other than state pensions and allowances. Other groups consist of members of families whose chief wage-earners earn up to £3. 12s. (Group 2), over £3. 12s. to £5 (Group 3), over £5 to £10, (Group 4) and over £10 (Group 5).

The proportions seeing a paper are higher in the higher economic groups than in the lower. Of the lowest group nearly half saw no paper and more than a third of Group 2 did not see one.

Analysis by Education

This shows similar differences, those with higher education seeing morning papers more frequently. Informants are classified according to the last type of educational institution attended, elementary, secondary or technical school, university, or other type of school. Figures are not given for the last of these groups as the schools included cover a wide variety of types.

Nearly a third of those with elementary education only saw no paper. This group forms two thirds of the population.

Analysis by Occupation

In considering differences between occupation groups the differences between men and women, education groups and economic groups should also be borne in mind For instance, in the three groups of factory workers, heavy manufacture has the highest proportion of men and also the highest proportion of newspaper readers. Other light manufacture has the highest proportion of women and the lowest proportion of newspaper readers. The difference between these groups, therefore, is likely to be due to sex differences rather than to the influence of occupation, the difference between the sexes being more marked than the differences between occupation groups in general.

On the other hand, nearly all the agricultural workers and all the miners are men, but these groups show only low and average proportions seeing papers. It would seem, therefore, that here is a real occupational difference. Agricultural workers show a very low proportion of readers, but the proportion of all persons in rural areas who saw newspapers is about average, 75%.

Housewives show 71% seeing a paper, and this proportion is about average although of course, the whole group is composed of women. A separate analysis shows that a lower proportion of working women than of housewives saw a newspaper.

Thus a very high proportion of women who go out to work do not see a morning newspaper.

Building and transport workers are mainly men and show a high proportion seeing newspapers.

Clerical workers show a higher than average proportion seeing them though rather more than haif of this group are women. This difference is likely to be related to differences in education, a relatively high proportion of this group having secondary education. The managerial and professional group shows the highest proportion of newspaper readers. Here both education and income group are related to the high figure.

On the whole the differences between different occupation groups are not very great but such differences do exist. As has been shown they are in many instances related to sex, educational or economic differences in the composition of the groups themselves.

Amongst factory workers analysis was made of the replies received from skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers.

Investigators were instructed to ask the management or the welfare officer to grade workers as skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled, and so the way in which workers was classified depends on the personal judgment of these people, and not on any recognised craft or trade union definition. This may account for the high proportion of workers classified as “skilled”. The differences in the habits of the different groups of workers are however quite clear.

Skilled workers more frequently saw newspapers than unskilled.

Analysis by Region

In the North and Wales more than a third did not see a morning paper. The South shows the highest proportion seeing papers. The three Northern regions all show less than average proportions seeing papers and the Southern regions and Midlands above average.

Grouping the regions gives the following result.

Other Analyses

Analyses made by towns of different sizes and by urban and rural areas showed only small differences.

(2) How often do you see a Morning Paper ?

In the previous section the proportions of the population and of different groups seeing morning newspapers on any given day were shown. Not all those who saw a newspaper “yesterday” did so every day. The majority of those who answered “Yes” to the first question were regular readers, but some of them saw a paper on some days and not on others as did some of those who answered “No” to that question.

The 73% who saw a morning paper “yesterday” are thus composed of a section, 66% who see the paper every day and 7% who only see a paper sometimes. The 27% who did not see a morning paper “yesterday” include 14% who never do so and 13% who see a paper on some days but did not happen to “yesterday”.

Informants who did not see a paper always, but did sometimes, were asked whether they generally saw one (most days) or whether they only saw a paper “some days”. How often these people saw a paper on an average may be calculated by comparing the results of the two questions. The group forms 19% of the sample (most days 11% - some days 8%). 7% saw a paper yesterday, but did not always see one, and thus on an average those who are irregular readers see a paper on seven out of nineteen days, or very roughly on one day out of three.

Altogether, 22%, or about one-fifth of the whole population, never or only occasionally see a morning newspaper. 77% see one always or generally.

Necessarily the groups which show high proportions never seeing papers or only seeing them occasionally are the same as the groups which show high proportions answering “No” to “Did you see a morning paper yesterday?” Analyses of replies to the second question are shown below.

Analysis by Sex

Analysis by Age

Analysis by Sex and Age

Of all women nearly a fifth never see a morning paper and a further 9% only see one some days. Of girls aged 14 -17, 40% or more do not generally see a paper, and as many as 30% of women aged from 18-40 and of women aged over 65 do not generally see one.

A third of the boys aged 14 -17 did not generally see the morning paper and as many as a fifth never saw one.

Men in the three middle age groups show the highest proportions of regular readers, and among these, those aged over 40 include rather more regular readers than those aged under 40.

Analysis by Economic Group

Analysis by Education

Members of the higher income groups and those with higher education see papers more often. A quarter of those with elementary education only and the same proportion of the lower income group (which forms three quarters of the whole population) do not generally see a paper.

Analysis by Occupation

The differences shown are similar to those shown by the results of the first question “Did you see a newspaper yesterday?”, and are of course, similarly related to the distribution of the sexes and the economic and educational levels of the different groups.

When this is taken into consideration the most outstanding occupational differences are amongst agricultural workers and miners, groups composed almost entirely of men, of whom a quarter did not generally see a morning newspaper, whereas of all men only 15% did not generally see one.

90% of the managerial and professional group generally saw a paper. In this group the sexes are almost evenly distributed but education may be expected to make a difference.

Results for housewives do not differ greatly from the average and again the difference shown between the habits of men and women is largely accounted for by the working women. Of these, nearly a third did not generally see a morning paper

Amongst factory workers, skilled workers saw papers more frequently than semi-skilled and unskilled.

Analysis by Region

The North and Wales show very high proportions, 35% and 33%, saying they do not generally see a paper.

In general the Southern regions show higher proportions of regular readers than do the Northern regions.

Other Analyses

Again analyses made by urban and rural areas and by towns of different sizes show only small differences.

Analysis by marital status reflects the differences between age groups already noted.

Amongst married people there are no statistically significant differences in the answers given by those with and without children.

(3) Which Papers were seen?

Before going on to discuss which papers were seen the results given in sections (1) and (2) may be summed up, as these form the background to the more detailed information.

Nearly three-quarters of the adult civilian population, or about 24 million people, said they saw a paper “yesterday” and about two-thirds see one every day, 14% never see morning papers and a further 8% do not generally see one.

Men in the middle age groups are the greatest readers of morning papers, and in general those in the middle age groups see them more frequently than the young and the old. Of women, one-third, and of women who go out to work as many as 39% did not see a paper “yesterday” and women are less frequently regular readers than men. About one-fifth of all women do not read morning papers at all.

The lower economic groups and those with only elementary education, groups forming three-quarters and two-thirds of the population respectively, show very much lower proportions seeing papers than do the upper economic groups and those with higher education.

Morning papers are read rather more in the south of England and in the Midlands than in the north. Scotland shows an average and Wales a low proportion reading them.

Table 21 shows the proportions of the sample who saw different newspapers “yesterday”, and gives an estimate of the number of people in the adult civilian population seeing them based on these proportions. The estimates are, of course, subject to sampling error.

The percentages add to more than 100 because some people saw more than one paper. In fact the 4115 people who saw a morning paper “yesterday” saw between them 5011 papers, giving an average of 1.2 papers per person for those who saw papers.

Analysis by Region

The proportions seeing different morning papers vary more amongst different regions than amongst any other groups by which analyses have been made, for instance the Daily Mirror is very much read in the South but very little in the North; in Scotland Scottish papers are read mainly, and the only national daily with a large readership is the Daily Express.

In comparing the proportions seeing different papers in the regions the differences in the proportions who did not see a paper should be noted. There are also small differences in the numbers of papers seen by those who saw papers.

The national dailies are read more in the South and high proportions in the Northern regions see local provincial papers. The Express has a high proportion of readers in all regions except the North. In the South, South-West and London the figures for the Mirror are as high, or higher, than the Express figures.

These differences between regions are perhaps shown more clearly in the diagram below which shows the proportions in different regions who saw local and provincial papers and the three national dailies with the largest circulation.

Analysis by Sex

Although men more frequently saw papers than did women, as high a proportion of women as of men saw the Daily Mirror, the Sketch, the Times and the Telegraph .

The relative popularity of the newspapers amongst readers in different groups is in some cases shown better if percentages are based on the number of papers seen instead of on the number of people in the sample. It has already been shown that the proportions in different groups that did not see any paper vary, and it should also be said that amongst those who saw papers, more newspapers per person were seen by some groups than by others. Thus the 2013 men interviewed saw between them 2522 newspapers, and the 2102 women saw between them 2489. The average number of papers seen by men who saw papers is thus 1.25, and the corresponding figure for women 1.18.

For these reasons it is difficult to compare the popularity of different papers amongst those who read papers in different groups if the percentages are based on the number of people in the sample. For instance, although only about the same proportion of women as of men saw the Daily Mirror this paper accounts for 16% of all the papers seen by women but only 11% of all the papers seen by men.

Table 24 shows the proportion each paper accounts for of all the morning papers seen by the two sexes.

The Mirror accounts for a higher proportion of the newspapers seen by women than of the newspapers seen by men. The reverse is true of the Herald . In the case of other papers there are only small differences.

Analysis by Age

Although a relatively small proportion of those in the youngest group saw papers, a higher proportion of this group than of any other saw the Daily Mirror . As with the sexes it is easier to compare the popularity of different papers amongst the age groups if percentages are based on the number of papers seen.

The Mirror is more popular amongst young and the Mail and Telegraph amongst older newspaper readers. The Express , Herald , News Chronicle and Sketch are about equally popular amongst all groups.

Analysis by sex and age shows some differences. Table 27 shows the proportions different newspapers account for of all the newspapers seen by men and women under and over 40.

As many copies of the Mirror as of the Express were seen by women aged 40 or under, but the figure for the Mirror is considerably lower than the figure for the Express in the other three groups.

The Telegraph , Times and Mail account together for a quarter of the newspapers seen by women aged over 40 but only for 13% of the papers seen by men aged under 40.

The Express , News Chronicle and Sketch are about equally popular amongst the different groups.

Analysis by Economic Groups

In comparing the readership of different newspapers amongst economic groups it is important to note again the high proportion in the lower economic group who did not see any paper. Also those in the upper and middle groups more frequently saw two or more papers than those in the lower economic group The average number of papers seen by those who saw papers is 1.16 for the lower group, 1.30 for the middle group, and 1.48 for the upper group.

It is clear from Table 28 that the Times and Telegraph are read more by the upper and middle groups and the Mirror and the Herald by the lower group. If percentages are based on the number of papers seen the relative popularity of different papers amongst those who read papers can be seen more clearly.

Allowing for the fact that the upper economic group reads papers more frequently than the other groups, this table shows that the Daily Express is far less popular amongst readers in this group than in the middle and lower groups. This is particularly interesting in view of the fact that in most other analyses the Express is shown to be more or less equally popular with different groups. Local and provincial papers on the other hand are more popular with the upper and middle groups than with the lower group.

The differences already noted in the case of the Herald and Mirror and the Telegraph and Times are shown up more sharply by this table, the first two being more popular with the lower and the last two with the higher economic groups.

The News Chronicle, Mail and Sketch show only small differences.

Analysis by Education

The proportions of those with elementary, secondary and university education who saw different morning papers were as follows:

There is of course, some correspondence between education groups and economic groups, those in the middle and upper economic groups more frequently having higher education.

Comparison of the relative popularity of different papers is made in Table 1 as before, by basing percentages on the number of papers seen. It may be noted that the average number of papers seen by those who saw a paper is 1.16 for those with elementary education, 1.31 for those with secondary education, and 1.37 for those with university education.

The Daily Telegraph and the Times are much more popular amongst those with higher education and the Herald and Mirror amongst those with elementary education. The Express shows a high figure for both the elementary and secondary groups, and a relatively low figure for the university group.

Analysis by Occupation

The proportions in different occupation groups seeing the morning newspapers were as follows:

In considering differences between different occupation groups the composition of the groups should he borne in mind.

The Daily Express shows a fairly high proportion of readers in all groups. The Herald is seen more frequently amongst operatives in heavy manufacturing industries, miners and building and transport workers. These three groups are composed mainly of men, and it will he remembered that the Herald was more popular amongst men than amongst women. Workers in heavy manufacturing and miners show high proportions seeing local and provincial papers, and it should be noted that the majority of these are to the found in the Northern and Midland regions and in Scotland where the readership of such papers is relatively high. The managerial and professional and retired and unoccupied groups also show high proportions reading local and provincial newspapers, but these groups are distributed evenly throughout the regions. The Daily Mirror was seen by a high proportion of workers in the light engineering and munitions group, the Telegraph and Times by a high proportion of those in managerial and professional jobs.

These differences are shown more clearly in Table 33 in which the percentages each newspaper accounts for of all the newspapers seen by the different groups are shown.

Other Analyses

Analyses made by size of town, and by married people with and without children showed no statistically significant differences.

(4) Composition of the Public for Morning Newspapers

In the previous section the proportions of different groups that saw the various morning newspapers “yesterday” were shown. It is of interest to present some of these results in a different way in summing up the facts about the groups to which particular newspapers appeal. In the present section the composition of the publics reached by different newspapers are shown. Results are only given in this way where there are fairly marked differences.

In the diagram at the top of each set the distribution by sex, age, etc., of those who said “yes” to “Did you see a morning newspaper yesterday?” is shown.

Daily Express : Men predominate somewhat.

Daily Telegraph and Daily Sketch : Women predominate somewhat.

Of the 90 informants who had seen the Times , 73% were over 40. This result is subject to a margin of error of + or - 9%.

Of the 90 people who saw the Times , 41% were members of the upper group, 40% members of the middle group, and only 19% members of the lower group.

* The sample figures given here are the number who saw a paper “yesterday” in the case of the top diagrams, and the numbers seeing the papers concerned in the case of the others. There are discrepancies in the sample figures given in different analyses because some forms were unclassified in respect of age, economic group, etc.

Occupation

About half those who saw the Times were either managerial and professional workers (27 informants) or retired and unoccupied people (17 informants). The latter group consists largely of social pensioners and it is probable that some of these read the Times in public libraries.

The Daily Express is the paper with the most evenly distributed public. Also the proportions of News Chronicle readers falling within different groups do not vary very much from the proportions of those who saw any paper. The numbers reading the Daily Sketch are too small to give very precise results for this paper, but there are no very marked differences. Of the 78 people who saw the Daily Worker a. high proportion were men and a low proportion housewives.

(5) Factors of Supply and Distribution

In wartime it may be expected that newspaper reading habits will be affected to some extent by matters of supply and distribution. It is not always possible to buy a newspaper or the particular newspaper that is wanted.

Those people who did not see any morning newspaper “yesterday” were asked: “Why didn’t you see a paper?” in order to find out whether there was an unsatisfied demand for morning papers.

Only 2% of the sample said that they were unable to get the paper they wanted and a further 4% who relied on having papers passed on to them by other members of the family, said that no paper came into the house. The majority of those who did not see a paper gave reasons which showed lack of interest or time to read. It was shown in Table 11 that 14% never saw a paper. Some of those who had no time “yesterday” never had time to. 12% said they did not read a paper in answer to this question.

It appears from this that, at the time of the investigation, July 1943, there was no very considerable unsatisfied demand and that the vast majority of those who then wished to see a morning newspaper were able to do so.

With regard to particular newspapers, those people who had seen a paper the day before were asked “Was this the newspaper you wanted?”

3% of the sample saw a paper which was not the one they wanted to see. Others who saw papers either had the one they wanted or did not mind which paper they saw.

It was shown (Table 34) that 2% of the sample did not see a paper because they were unable to get the one they wanted, and so altogether 5% were unable to see the particular papers they wished to. In July 1943, therefore, shortage of newspapers only affected the reading habits of a small section of the civilian population, and very few people were prevented from seeing a morning newspaper at all by shortage.

One further question was asked of those who sometimes saw morning newspapers: “Do you usually see the same paper or different papers from day today?”

The great majority of newspaper readers see the same paper from day to day.

The 16% of the sample who do not usually see a paper includes those who never see a paper (14% see Table 11) and a few of those who only saw papers “some days”.

Analyses of the answers made by different groups shows only small differences.

How papers were obtained

Informants who had seen papers “yesterday” were asked how they obtained the papers they saw. In many cases papers are taken regularly by families, the papers are delivered at the door, and therefore it is not possible to decide precisely which member of the family bought the paper. It was decided therefore that if the paper was taken to work by one of the family this member of the family had "bought” the paper, but if the paper was left at home it should count as the purchase of the housewife. Accordingly, if a worker was interviewed and he brought the paper to work the answer was counted as “bought”. If the paper was left at home, the answer was counted as “copy came into house”. On the other hand if a housewife was being interviewed and the paper was left at home the answer was classified “bought”, but if one of the family took it to work the answer was counted as “copy came into house”.

Of all morning newspapers seen yesterday 32% were bought, 54% “came into the house” and 13% were borrowed from other people. Thus on an average each copy is seen by three people.

There are only small differences in the results for different papers, the picture papers being borrowed rather more frequently than others. 17% of copies of the Daily Mirror seen were borrowed, and of copies of the Daily Express, Daily Herald and News Chronicle 10% were borrowed.