WP Weekly 150 – Business

The business of WordPress is strong: be it stealth acquisition news of StellarWP products or Automattic extending €20,000 funding for Gutenberg in the Drupal ecosystem. Also, new AI Prompts Library for Elementor users, HeadstartWP framework for headless websites, and tracking updates for Bricks, Stackable, Visual Composer, MemberPress, and more.


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What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖

  • Cool New Launches… check all new Elementor’s Prompts Library for AI powered tasks you can perform related to content, images, and code with Elementor AI on your website. While the team at 10up has launched the HeadstartWP project, an open-source framework for building headless WordPress websites.
  • New Addon Releases… the team at GravityWiz has released Gravity Forms Advanced Select that adds an enhanced interface to drop-down and multi-select fields allowing better UX, accessibility, and flexibility. While the WP Job Openings plugin has a new Job Alerts Addon that allows you to send daily email notifications to subscribers whenever new job openings are published.
  • Good to Know… the official WordPress Plugins and Themes directory now has community and commercial tabs for filtering plugins and themes based on those specific criteria. While Justin Tadlock explained template part areas and how to add them to your theme for more custom setup – interesting, right?

Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥

  1. Page Builder Updates… Bricks Builder 1.8.1 update enables you to automatically regenerate CSS files after every theme update along with extended support for command line (WP-CLI) operations. While the latest release of Visual Composer (45.2) update makes it easy to add custom attributes and CSS for individual elements.
  2. Blocks Life… Stackable has added a new carousel block that allows you to quickly highlight gallery images or featured content on your website. While Gutenberg 16.0 update has added page management to the site editor allowing you to create new pages and view page details without leaving the site editor.
  3. Acquisition Train… this went unnoticed until today; One Equity Partners has acquired LiquidWeb Hosting and formed a new holding company called CloudOne Digital. This acquisition also includes all StellarWP products like Nexcess Hosting, GiveWP, The Events Calendar, LearnDash, Kadence, iThemes (rebranded as SolidWP), IconicWP, Orderable, Restrict Content Pro, and more.
  4. WP Milestones… Mihai Iova’s SliceWP plugin for affiliates setup and management has achieved 5000+ active installs in the directory. The creator of WPGetAPI shared about the WPGetAPI plugin reaching the 4000+ active installs milestone. Dave Swift’s Youtube Channel has crossed an impressive 20K subscribers, and Jamie Marsland’s Youtube Channel has crossed 12K subscribers.
  5. WP Recognized… the team at Awsm Innovations has been certified ‘Great Place To Work Certified’ in India from June 2023 to June 2024. While the Newfold Digital group, which has brands like Yoast and Bluehost has been recognized with two awards by Comparably: 49th in the Top 100 Best Leadership Teams and 57th on the list of companies with the Best Career Growth.
  6. Security Updates… FluentCRM, for better future communication and handling security issues, has published details of the disclosure program for security and vulnerability flow along with using the Patchstack vulnerability disclosure program. While WooCommerce has patched vulnerabilities discovered in several WooCommerce extensions for payment processing.

Quick Bits 👍

WordCamp Europe 2023: Experiences & More!

Raitis Sevelis attended WC EU as part of the Indystack hosting team, “I came back all pumped up – tons of ideas, many goals, and ready to rock.”. Birgit Olzem summed up as, “was electric, buzzing with the ‘just do it’ attitude and the desire to make an impact”. While Bob Dunn shared a lot of photos and, “If I could put every experience I had, every conversation, and every laugh or hug here”.

Katie Keith published a profound account of being the event sponsor, and details of costs, swag quantities, and possible ROI. While the Filter Agency summarized the experience, “we bring with us the knowledge, inspiration, and connections acquired at WordCamp Europe.”

WP Market Share + Automattic Funds Drupal

Joost has published June 2023 update for CMS Market Share Analysis: WordPress is going stable, but Prestashop is getting the right kind of growth attention in the last 12 months; it was acquired by MBE Worldwide in 2021. Also, Matt Mullenweg has decided to fund €20,000 through Automattic for the endeavor of Drupal websites using the Gutenberg project.

And… did you notice, this is the 150th edition of ‘The WP Weekly’ newsletter? Many thanks to all the readers, supporters, and sponsors – you all make this possible!


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Upcoming Events 💬

September 27, 2023: WordPress Accessibility Day 2023, Livestreaming Free.
September 28, 2023: WordPress Web Agency AI Summit 2023, by Crocoblock.
September 28, 2023: Best Practices for Email Marketing, BlueHost online event.

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