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#256 – Elementor One, Content-Creators Slack Channel closed, Hackathon Live, WP 2026 Goals

Issue #256   |   January 27, 2026   |   Reading time: 19 mins

Hello!

This week on The WP Week Newsletter, we cover the launch of Elementor One, WordPress Goals for 2026, the closure of Content-Creators Slack channel, Plugin Jam Hackathon now live, new projects, and more.

Don’t forget to subscribe and listen to the podcast version of this newsletter, where you can hear more details and discussions about these topics and more.

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See you next week!

Team WP-CONTENT.CO

🙌 This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by Kinsta, ProfilePress and WP Job Openings

Kinsta – Highest-rated managed WordPress hosting provider on G2 Check it out  →

ProfilePress – Create membership sites & sell subscriptions on WordPress Check it out  →

Create a career page and start recruiting talents in a few minutes Check it out  →

🗣️TALK OF THE TOWN

This is a unified website creation platform that combines design, optimization, and management into a single subscription.

Elementor also underwent a rebranding, retaining its PINK personality, and Rino de Boer has reviewed their new website.

📰  WORDPRESS & AROUND

All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies

Mary Hubbard outlined the goals for 2026, and key priorities include WordPress 7.0 with real-time co-editing, improved media and design tools, AI integration with clear guidelines, revamping meetups, and focusing on education programs.

🔧 TIP OF THE WEEK
WP Theming Tip: Make Your Themes Faster 🚀

A fast theme isn’t just good design—it’s good UX. Improve speed and performance with these simple optimizations:

  • Use minified CSS & JS
    Minifying removes unnecessary characters, reducing file size and speeding up load times.
  • Enable lazy loading for images
    Only load images when they enter the viewport. This drastically improves initial page speed.
  • Limit external scripts (fonts, icons, libraries)
    Each external call adds latency. Use only what’s essential—or self‑host when possible.
  • Preload important assets
    Fonts, hero images, and critical CSS should be preloaded to improve perceived performance and avoid layout shifts.

👥 COMMUNITY NEWS

Updates and News from the WordPress Community

The online event on 12 March 2026 will focus on where WordPress is headed and the year’s most significant shifts. The registrations are now open.

  • SomeConf 2026 has been cancelled: The team decided not to move forward after momentum and interest didn’t meet expectations, preferring to end the event rather than do it halfway. They thank everyone who supported the conference along the way.
  • PluginJam hackathon is now live: This month’s theme for the block is “Grow” and submissions are open till January 28, and participants can build solo or in teams using any tools.
  • Bit Flows AI Agent feature launched: The feature lets users build intelligent, decision-making workflows directly inside WordPress. It uses LLMs with memory, logic, and 257+ integrations to analyze inputs, make decisions, and automatically route tasks.
  • FlyingPress 5.3 released: This release adds built-in image optimization, letting users choose the image format, control compression, and auto-optimize uploads, with all processing handled on FlyingPress cloud servers.
  • FluentCart v1.3.8 is now available: The release adds a new Modal Checkout for faster, on-page purchases, Product Duplicate for easier product creation, and the ability to copy product variation IDs.
  • Search & Filter version 3.2.0 released: This release brings a complete admin redesign, major performance improvements, smarter search, accessibility upgrades, and so on.
  • AB Split Test v2.4.1: This introduces public test reports (shareable links with no login required), automatic form-submission tracking across major WordPress form plugins, and so on.
  • MailOptin version 2.2.76.0 released: The update adds Mailercloud email marketing integration, Cloudflare Turnstile integration, background processing of external opt-ins, and a fix for fatal errors when cloning opt-ins along with a few other improvements.
  • Brizy AI v1.5 now live: The latest release makes website creation faster and more flexible by allowing block-by-block generation, fully custom multipage support, selective content regeneration, easy addition of new sections, and industry-aware design choices.
  • All new Skills.sh: Skills are reusable capabilities for AI agents. They provide clear guidance to help agents complete specific tasks effectively. A few skills for WordPress are already available and can be viewed by searching “automattic”.
  • Elementor’s Editor Version 4 is now in Beta and ready for production sites: Built on a new atomic architecture, it introduces a more scalable, efficient, and faster way to design. Version 4 works alongside Version 3, is available to all Elementor users (Free, Pro, and One), and will roll out fully in Q2, with wider beta access coming in the next couple of weeks.
  • Templatera and Easy Tables Added to WPBakery Support Plus: Both are now included in the WPBakery Support Plus subscription at no extra cost.
  • Typeform changes price after 4 years: The Basic plan is now priced at $39, a 34% increase, and the Growth Essentials plan has been discontinued. Annual plans offer a 30% discount compared to monthly pricing.
  • Seahawk Launches Pro Services Platform (PSP) for Web Hosts and WordPress providers: An invite-only Pro Services Platform that lets web hosts and WordPress providers offer professional WordPress services (like site builds, maintenance, security, and performance) under their own brand without hiring an internal services team.
  • New milestone for  SureForms: The plugin now has over 400,000+ active installs. Recently, they have also introduced PayPal Payment Support.
  • Jonathan Bossenger on the new direction for his YouTube channel: He is introducing a new format for his weekly streams, a 10–15 minute edited highlight video with key content and links, released every Wednesday, while full streams will still be available.
  • Ohia receives the Yoast Care fund for her contribution to the WordPress community: Ohia, a member of the WordPress Community Team is the latest recipient of the Yoast Care fund.
🚀 NEW PROJECTS
“Here’s what makes it different: it works on autopilot. Connect your store once, configure your settings, and reviewbird takes care of the rest. No more manual follow-ups. No more missed opportunities.”

Clifton Griffin about developing reviewbird.
  • reviewbird is now live: Created by Clifton Griffin, a new review management tool for WooCommerce that collects, moderates, and showcases product reviews.
  • Miles: Created by Andy Peatling, Miles is an AI agent that designs and builds WordPress websites with custom blocks, plugin integration, and production-ready code. Interest folks can sign up to be on the list ofr early access.
  • Post Date Block: Published & Modified: This plugin by Weston Ruter extends the core Post Date block variation, specifically the “Post Date” variation of the Date block.
  • Raffle for WooCommerce: The plugin lets users run unlimited raffles and sell tickets through their WooCommerce store.
  • Sticklight: The new AI-powered website builder is coming soon, and the waitlist is now open.
  • Block Style Modifiers: This plugin allows you to add multiple block styles to Gutenberg blocks.
  • WP Media Cleanup: The plugin that scans your WordPress site for unused image variations and safely deletes them to reclaim disk space, while keeping original uploads intact.
  • Multi-Email Login: Created by Marcus Burnette, the plugin allows users to log in with multiple email addresses on a single WordPress account.
  • SureContact: A new email marketing and CRM platform for WordPress.
  • LovedbyAI: The plugin optimizes sites for AI search engines and Large Language Models.
  • Block Finder and Downtime by Troy Chaplin: Block Finder adds a dashboard widget that makes it easy to locate and edit any core or custom Gutenberg block across all post types on your site. Downtime adds a simple maintenance mode for block themes.
  • WP Debug Toggler: A Local by WP Engine add-on that allows you to easily toggle WordPress debug settings directly from the Local Tools tab.
  • Three new free plugins from rtCamp: OneLogs enables unified activity log visibility and governance monitoring across all sites in a WordPress multisite or OnePress network, and OneAccess, a centralized user management solution designed for enterprises managing multiple WordPress sites. OneSearch allows users to search content across multiple brand sites.

🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS

More posts and podcasts from the WordPress Community you don’t want to miss

  • Jonathan Bossenger talked about how the future of software development could look like. He also discussed recent AI-related news in WordPress, including the Plugin Check Namer tool for evaluating plugin names and the introduction of the Abilities API JavaScript client in Gutenberg.
  • In this episode of Seriously, Bud?, Bud Kraus chats with Adam Warner about balancing family and work, his journey into WordPress, and his decision to focus on fewer, more meaningful projects.
  • Eric Karkovack explores why freelance designers and developers must actively advocate for themselves when working solo.
  • After exploring alternatives, Jean Galea concludes that WordPress remains the most practical and capable choice for building websites in 2026.
  • Benjamin Zekavica on WordPress 7.0 enforcing Block API v3 and why existing blocks may fail.
  • Can you really build Gutenberg Blocks without React? Watch Ryan Welcher building custom Gutenberg blocks without touching React or JavaScript.
  • Varun Dubey highlights BuddyPress’s decline and urges the community to step in and help revive the platform before it fades away.
  • What happens when one site gets hacked on shared hosting? The Kinsta team takes a look at the issue.
  • Hostinger’s analysis of 66.7 billion web crawlers shows AI-driven bots are expanding rapidly, SEO and monitoring crawlers are shrinking, and traditional search engines remain steady.
  • A Patchstack study found that so-called secure hosting blocks only about 26% of WordPress vulnerability attacks, with roughly 74% still succeeding. The research shows most hosts struggle to stop WordPress-specific exploits, highlighting that generic firewalls and security tools aren’t enough.
  • In this episode of WP Product Talk, hosts Matt Cromwell and Zack Katz talk with Jason Adams, Core AI Team Lead at Automattic, about the future of WordPress AI, how plugin teams can build on it, and how to stay relevant as AI becomes more deeply integrated into WordPress.
  • Anne Bovelett, in this episode of Open Makers, talks with Rahul Bansal and Aviral Mittal of rtCamp about the agency’s journey from 2009, their work on accessibility, global projects, and public WordPress training programs.
  • Anne McCarthy shared an early look at some of the features coming to WordPress 7.0, focusing on updates that are nearing completion as beta approaches.
  • Francis Agulto argues that WordPress must evolve beyond being a passive content platform to become an active participant in the agentic web. He explains how standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and tools such as the WP Engine AI Toolkit can be beneficial.

🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE

Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle

📆 SAVE THE DATES

Do not miss a WordPress event ever again

🎁 WORDPRESS DEALS OF THE WEEK

Again, these are the best deals of the week, handpicked by yours!

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MORE DEALS

This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by awesome WordPress Companies 🦸‍♂️🙌

Kinsta – Highest-rated managed WordPress hosting provider on G2 Check it out  →

ProfilePress – Create membership sites & sell subscriptions on WordPress Check it out  →

Create a career page and start recruiting talents in a few minutes Check it out  →

Last but not least, updates from WP-CONTENT.CO 👇

WordPress #Content-Creators Slack Channel Closed After Four Months

The WordPress #content-creators Slack channel, started by Anne McCarthy in September 2025 to support and connect content creators…

Read more

WordPress 7.0 Release Squad Revealed With Matias Ventura as Release Lead

Core contributor and VP of Open Source at Fueled + 10up, Jeffrey Paul, has shared the WordPress 7.0…

Read more

WordPress 6.9.1 Set for February Release With Bug Fixes Only

WordPress 6.9.1 release has been scheduled for February 3, 2026. The release schedule was shared by Aaron Jorbin…

Read more

WP‑Bench: WordPress Launches Official AI Benchmark

The WordPress AI Team has announced the release of WP‑Bench, the first official benchmark designed to measure how…

Read more

Team WP-CONTENT.CO

Issue #256   |   January 27, 2026   |   Reading time: 19 mins

This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by Kinsta, ProfilePress, and WP Job Openings

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