A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
II EVENING NEWSPAPERS
Informants were asked, “How often do you see an evening newspaper?” In the table below the answers to this question are compared with the answers to “How often do you see a morning newspaper?” given in Table 1
Table 37
| Evening Newspapers | Morning Newspapers | |
| % | % | |
| Every day | 42 | 66 |
| Most days | 8 | 11 |
| Some days | 15 | 8 |
| Never | 35 | 14 |
| Not answered | - | 1 |
| Sample: | 5639 | 5639 |
Evening papers are not seen by as many people as morning papers, but about half of those asked generally, saw an evening paper.
An analysis of the replies made by those who did and did not see a morning newspaper yesterday shows no statistically significant differences.
Table 38
This suggests that evening newspapers are not looked upon as an alternative to morning papers, and that the habit of reading an evening paper is not related to morning paper reading habits in any particular way.
Those who did not see a morning paper yesterday and never see an evening paper represent 9% of the whole sample. Some of these might see a morning paper on some days (though not “yesterday”), and thus the proportion who never see any daily newspaper is low.
Analysis by Sex
Table 39
| How often do you see an evening newspaper? | |||
| Men | Women | Total | |
| % | % | % | |
| Every day | 48 | 37 | 42 |
| Most days | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Some days | 14 | 16 | 15 |
| Never | 30 | 39 | 35 |
| Sample: | 2491 | 3148 | 5639 |
As with morning papers, men see evening papers more frequently than do women.
Analysis by Age
Table 40
Evening newspapers are read more frequently by the middle age groups than by the young and the old. Of the youngest age group the proportion never seeing an evening paper is average, a higher proportion of this group than of the oldest group seeing them on some days but not on others. Of the oldest group nearly half never see an evening paper.
It will be remembered that morning newspaper reading habits showed a similar pattern, the young and the old reading these less frequently than the middle age groups.
Analysis by Sex and Age
Table 41
The proportions of men in the three middle age groups who never see an evening paper are relatively low. In the case of both sexes the young and the old see evening papers less frequently, and there are no statistically significant differences between results for the three middle age groups.
Anaylis by Economic Groups
Table 42
The upper and middle economic groups see evening papers more frequently than the lower group but the difference is not so marked as was the case with morning newspapers. Of the upper group 89% saw a morning newspaper every day and 2% never saw one. Of the lower group only 61% saw a morning paper every day and 17% never saw one.
Analysis by Education
Table 43
A higher proportion of those with elementary education never saw an evening paper, but the proportion seeing one every day is about the same in the different groups. This is in contrast to the results for morning newspapers, 61% of those with elementary, 76% of those with secondary, and 86% of those with university education saw a morning newspaper daily.
Analysis by Occupation
Table 44
Workers in heavy manufacturing show the highest proportion reading evening newspapers regularly. The proportion of this group that reads morning newspapers is about average. The majority of workers in this group are men.
Managerial and professional workers, clerical workers, and building and transport workers (mainly men) show relatively high proportions of regular readers. These groups also read morning newspapers more frequently.
Analysis of replies given by skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled factory workers shows only small differences in the case of evening newspapers. It will also be noticed that about the same proportions of the two light factory groups read evening papers, although a rather high proportion of the munitions workers than of the other light factory group read morning papers.
Of the housewives rather a low proportion saw evening papers. It will be remembered that housewives more frequently saw morning papers than women who went out to work. With evening papers the position is reversed, working women seeing them rather more frequently.
Table 45
| How often do you see an evening paper? | |||
| Working Women | Housewives | All Women | |
| % | % | % | |
| Every day | 41 | 35 | 37 |
| Most days | 10 | 7 | 8 |
| Some days | 16 | 15 | 16 |
| Never | 32 | 43 | 39 |
| Not answered | 1 | - | - |
| Sample: | 1251 | 1732 | 3148 |
The proportion of agricultural workers reading evening papers regularly is very low, and it will be remembered that of this group a relatively small proportion saw morning papers. However this result must be to a great extent a reflection of differences in the distribution areas of evening papers. Of all informants living in rural areas only 22% saw evening papers every day.
Analysis of the replies given by informants living in towns of different sizes and in rural areas is given below.
Analysis by Size of Town
Table 46
Only small proportions of those living in small towns and in rural areas saw evening papers regularly. In rural areas as many as 60% never saw an evening paper. These differences are no doubt due in some measure to differences in distribution and do not necessarily show that there is any less potential demand for evening papers in the country and in small towns than elsewhere. It will be remembered that no statistically significant differences were found in the proportions reading morning newspapers in towns of different sizes and in rural areas.
These differences should be borne in mind when considering regional differences, as the proportions of the population living in rural areas and in small towns vary considerably from one region to another.
Analysis by Region
Table 47
East Anglia, Wales, the South West and South East, show low proportions reading evening papers regularly. In these regions a large part of the population lives in small towns or in the country, which may be related to this. It has been shown that there is some association between size of town and readership of evening papers.
The North East, Scotland and London show high proportions of regular readers.
Other Analyses
Analysis by marital status shows only such differences as might be expected from the age composition of the different groups, married people seeing papers rather more frequently than single people.
Analysis of replies from married people with and without children show no differences between the two groups.
How Evening Papers were Obtained
Informants who read evening papers were asked, “Do you buy it yourself, see somebody’s copy, or does a copy come into the house?” Replies were classified in the same way as with morning newspapers. (see page 25)
40% of those who saw evening papers bought them, 46% saw a copy that came into the house, and 13% saw other people’s copies.