“Many of our markets sold out, we could have arguably sold more. “We saw the biggest surge in newspaper sales for a Friday in recent memory, or frankly all memory,” he says, estimating sales rose 25% to 35% on the Friday after the Queen died. Newsquest chief executive, Henry Faure Walker, who runs 160 local titles from the Glasgow Herald and Oxford Mail to the Brighton Argus and Darlington Echo, expects another spike after the funeral. “I wouldn’t put it off the table as being the biggest ever for some titles – bigger than William and Kate’s 2011 wedding edition, Obama coming to power, Brexit, Mandela or Thatcher dying – it was bigger.” “Obviously overall sales volumes aren’t what they once were, but proportionally it was one of the biggest increases we’ve ever seen,” says the executive. Publishers raced to increase print runs of Friday editions after the news broke on Thursday evening, in order to meet the expected surge in demand, although the Daily Mail is understood to have missed the deadline to get an ambitious 450,000 extra copies to retailers.Īccording to a senior executive at one newspaper group, national titles enjoyed one of the biggest ever week on week percentage rises in sales that Friday. However, for newspapers the Queen’s death has provided huge sales boosts as mourners snapped up keepsake commemorative print editions. The Guardian front page, Friday 9 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022 /5ROqSmVqE1- The Guardian September 8, 2022 “It’s kind of like the mass media event that commercially never was.” “We are talking about the loss of millions and millions of pounds of advertising for media owners,” says a senior executive at a UK media agency. TV companies also vetted all other ads and sponsorships to make sure no “insensitive or inappropriate” content aired, such as promotions for funeral services. That pause, which was also instituted by almost every media owner in the UK including newspapers and radio stations to digital platforms such as Snapchat and Twitter and outdoor advertising giants such as JCDecaux and Clear Channel, will be implemented again on Monday for the funeral.Īfter the first ad blackout, commercials were shorn from all news and royal-themed programming on TV during the mourning period, with similar restrictions followed by most other media. However, there was a total TV advertising blackout after the death of the Queen, in accordance with a protocol agreement with Buckingham Palace, over most of the weekend. Mass media TV events are usually cash cows for commercial broadcasters, with 30-second ad breaks in an X Factor final or an England game in the latter stages of a major football tournament running to hundreds of thousands of pounds. However, the peak channel audience at any one time was just 9.83 million – at 6.30pm on BBC One around the time of the official announcement. The audience aggregator has estimated that the day of the Queen’s death already tops the charts for total reach, with 33 million viewers tuning into the BBC and major channels carrying news between midday and 2am. “It will go on so long, so many will get a chance to see at least some of it, and there will be a peak moment that will be in that realm of record-breaking figures.” “There is no way it is not going to be huge,” says Boyd Hilton, entertainment director at the multimedia magazine Heat. Viewing will be further boosted by the ceremony being held on a hastily announced bank holiday, especially given there will be a semi-national closure of businesses reminiscent of lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic with businesses from cinemas and supermarkets to Primark and McDonald’s staying shut. This all means the event’s total national reach, the number of individual viewers who watch at least some coverage, could surpass that of two of the most-watched live TV events ever – England’s 1966 World Cup win and the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.
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