Wednesday 26th August: eCommerce surge - Five years' growth in three months

It's Wednesday and this morning's Media Moundup is brought to you by Peter.

Official figures from both the UK and the USA have shown dramatic changes in ecommerce activity during lockdown. Casually labeling the headline numbers 'pretty dramatic', Benedict Evans goes on to highlight five years' growth in three months.

Benedict acknowledges that ecommerce growth was fueled by the closure of physical retail outlets, causing a bigger spike in the UK where lockdown was tighter than the US. But he also points out that overall ecommerce has remained strong in both the US and the UK, even as lockdown measure have eased.

It remains to be seen whether the changes on shopping habits will become permanent, but Benedict's view, that 'we’re in a period of both forced experiment and forced experimentation' is spot on. Smart publishers like GQ are looking to invest in developing their ecommerce offerings, just in case the experiment sticks.

I'm honestly really struggling to care about this, but I suppose Facebook launching its news tab internationally might eventually, in time, someday, be important to some publishers. Of course it could be another BS move by Facebook to pretend to care about real news. I suppose you pays your money, you takes your choice.

An email and print info bundle about the post office? Doesn't seem like the kind of thing Vice would do. But in America's election year with the USPS in crisis and the President gaslighting the nation about postal voting fraud, this is a genius move by Vice's Motherboard team. Subscribers paying $8 a month get the print.

Press Gazette is reporting a rare publishing success story. During the pandemic, Children's news magazines have been adding subscribers, reported on the biggest crisis of a generation and giving their young audiences a welcome break from their screens.

Today's throwback:

The Press Gazette story about the lockdown success of kids magazines reminded me of this interview with Cathy Olmedillas, founder of independent children’s magazines Anorak and Dot.

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