Issue #280 | July 15, 2026 | Reading time: 25 mins
Hello!
This week on The WP Week Newsletter, we cover the WordPress Foundation’s 2025 financial report, the reversal of the classic block phase-out decision, WP 7.0.1 maintenance release now available, low ticket sales for WordCamp US 2026 as of now, a new design system theming proposal, along with 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.
See you next week!
Team WP-CONTENT.CO
🙌 This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by ProfilePress and WP Job Openings
🗣️TALK OF THE TOWN
The WordPress Foundation’s 2025 financial report highlights increased revenue and a 27% rise in attendance at WordCamps and community events. While the WordPress Foundation itself recorded a small surplus, its subsidiary, WordPress Community Support, reported a $372,088 operating deficit as event expenses outpaced revenue and warned that ongoing legal action by WP Engine could impact future community programs and initiatives.
📰 WORDPRESS & AROUND
All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies
An earlier decision to hide the Classic block from the block inserter by default in WordPress 7.1 has been reversed following community feedback. As a result, the proposed changes, including a new filter, a migration notice, and the Enable Classic Block plugin, have been withdrawn.
- WordPress 7.0.1 is now available: Thi is the first maintenance release for WordPress 7.0. The short-cycle update includes fixes for 31 bugs across WordPress Core and the Block Editor, addressing issues in areas such as the Block Editor, admin UI, and media.
- WordPress proposes new design system theming foundation for 7.1: A proposal has been submitted to merge a new design system theming into WordPress as part of the ongoing design system work supporting the admin design project. The proposal introduces a comprehensive set of design tokens, a new wp-theme stylesheet, a wp-theme JavaScript package with a React ThemeProvider, and CSS custom properties that provide a foundation for consistent, accessible, and customizable user interface components across the WordPress admin experience.
- The July 2026 WordPress developer roundup is out: It covers the 7.1 beta cycle starting July 15, responsive styling now open for testing, React 19 compatibility tooling in Gutenberg 23.4, and a deprecation wave across @wordpress/components.
- The Community Team has introduced Community Agents: It is a lightweight, community-owned platform of AI assistants that handle repetitive, detail-heavy tasks while leaving every decision in human hands. Each agent lives in a single Slack channel and is triggered with a simple slash command (for example, /tm-audit).
- WordPress education initiatives continued to expand: Destiny Kanno’s June 2026 Education Buzz Report highlights continued growth across WordPress Campus Connect, WordPress Credits, and WordPress Student Clubs. The report covers Campus Connect reaching 50 events since its launch and over 6,300 students, the expansion of the Credits program to 83 active mentors, 28 partner institutions, and 275 active students, as well as new educational partnerships, program updates, student-led workshops, and ongoing efforts to strengthen WordPress learning and contributor pathways across the global community.
- WordPress is moving away from Meetup.com in favor of GatherPress: Karen Alma shared an update on WordPress’s plan to transition community events from Meetup.com to GatherPress, with Anne McCarthy coordinating the project alongside Dion Hulse, Patricia BT, Mauro Torta, and the GatherPress contributor community. The move aims to reduce the roughly $250,000 annual cost of Meetup.com while building WordPress.org event functionality on top of GatherPress, the open-source, community-built event plugin.
- WordPress AI 1.1.0 introduces new experiments for smarter writing and secure AI integrations: Jeffrey Paul highlights the latest release of the AI plugin, introducing new experiments like Type-ahead Text for AI-assisted writing and Key Encryption for protecting AI Connector API keys. The update also brings improvements to content workflows, comment moderation, Abilities API integration, developer tools, and user experience refinements, with more AI experiments planned for future releases.
- WooCommerce is inviting developers to test the new React-powered Settings UI: WooCommerce 10.9 introduces an opt-in React-based Settings UI that allows extension developers to test existing settings pages without replacing the familiar PHP settings array or save flow. Brian Coords explained how the new adapter-based approach works, when to use LegacySettingsPageAdapter versus SettingsUIPageInterface, what scenarios to test, and how developers can provide feedback. Also, WooCommerce is introducing a limit of three open pull requests for contributors without write access to the core repository to help maintain code quality. Once contributors reach this limit, they must wait until one of their existing pull requests is merged or closed before opening another.
- WooCommerce team wants help improving WooCommerce developer docs for core features: The goal is to identify gaps in the developer documentation so the team can prioritize improvements that help developers get real work done. You can share your feedback on GitHub.
- Automattic releases Code for the People documentary: A 20-minute documentary by acclaimed director Bao Nguyen that explores a critical turning point for the open web, highlighting the importance of open source and the collective effort needed to preserve a free and open internet.
- Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (June 29, 2026 to July 5, 2026): There were 250 vulnerabilities disclosed in 181 plugins and 41 themes.
- xAI’s Grok Build CLI Uploads Entire Git repositories to a Google Cloud Bucket: Security researcher cereblab discovered that xAI’s Grok Build CLI was uploading entire Git repositories, including commit history and sensitive files, to a company-controlled cloud storage bucket, even with data collection disabled. After the findings were made public, xAI quietly disabled the behavior through a server-side update without issuing a public explanation or clarifying what would happen to previously uploaded code.
- Google Ads adds AI disclosure labels for third-party creative: The update adds AI transparency labels to ads across Search, YouTube, and Discover. It also requires advertisers using third-party AI tools to disclose when AI was used to create or edit an ad.
🔧 TIP OF THE WEEK
Make Sliders LCP-Friendly
If using Slick or Swiper:
- Render first slide immediately.
- Preload first image.
- Initialize slider after page load.
window.addEventListener(‘load’, () => {
$(‘.slider’).slick();
});
Users see content first.
Slider behavior comes second.
💵 INVESTMENTS, ACQUISITIONS & PARTNERSHIPS
- LedgerPort has been acquired by Awesome Motive: The eCommerce accounting automation platform for Shopify and WooCommerce will continue with the same product, pricing, and customer data, while gaining additional resources, engineering support, and closer integration with Awesome Motive’s WooCommerce ecosystem.
👥 COMMUNITY NEWS
Updates and News from the WordPress Community
With WordCamp US 2026 scheduled for August 16–19 and ticket sales currently above 400, Kevin Geary highlighted the continued decline in ticket sales over the past four years and said WordPress needs to be flexible and adaptive. Anita questioned the lack of a published schedule and confirmed speakers even weeks before the event, while Katie Keith pushed back against using WordCamp US’s low ticket sales as evidence that WordPress is in decline, citing the strong turnout at WordCamp Europe. A guide to WordCamp US 2026 was published recently, highlighting the Contributor Day, Showcase Day and the two conference days.
- SiteGround’s report explores how WordPress small businesses are adopting AI and where gaps remain: Based on insights from 7,000+ surveyed WordPress small business owners, the report finds that 78% of WordPress users now use AI daily, but 41% still need multiple attempts to get useful results. It examines how the growing ecosystem of 3,000+ AI plugins has created fragmentation and explores the need for more connected AI solutions that can help users perform real WordPress tasks more effectively.
- Hostinger partners with Patchstack to add built-in vulnerability management for Node.js hosting: The partnership introduces continuous vulnerability monitoring to help developers detect security issues in third-party dependencies after deployment. The feature provides automatic alerts and remediation guidance, addressing security challenges as AI tools make application development faster and more accessible.
- Koko Analytics plugin gets a new logo and brand color: Danny van Kooten, founder of ibericode, shared this on X.
- WP Rocket 3.23 introduces MCP access to help agencies manage site performance with AI: The update allows users to connect AI tools like Claude and Codex with WP Rocket settings and Rocket Insights data, helping agencies and freelancers monitor client sites, identify performance issues, generate reports, and streamline optimization workflows while keeping control over changes.
- FluentPlayer Pro version has been launched: The Pro version introduces advanced interactive layers, video playlists, detailed analytics, subtitles, timed content, playback memory, expanded media support, and powerful integrations to help you create more engaging video experiences. As part of the launch, an EarlyBird Lifetime License Deal is also available.
- Tutor LMS 4.0 is live now: A complete rebuild of the learning experience, featuring a learner-first design, smarter assessments, enhanced mobile usability, AI-powered tools, and powerful improvements for learners, instructors, and administrators alike. To celebrate the launch, the team is offering 30% off all Tutor LMS plans for a limited time.
- New subscription recovery add-on for WPSubscription: The add-on helps WooCommerce stores win back cancelled and expired subscribers through automated email campaigns, targeted discounts, customizable templates, and recovery reports that track recovered revenue.
- SureRank 1.9.2 adds FluentCart SEO support and improves security and reliability: The update introduces SEO integration for FluentCart, improves comment-link SEO, encrypts Google Search Console OAuth tokens, and includes fixes for imports, WooCommerce blocks, schema generation, broken links, and sitemap caching in SureRank Premium.
- Beaver Builder 2.11 adds popups, maintenance mode, settings snapshots, and more: The release introduces a new Popup Module that lets users build and manage popups directly within the visual builder, a built-in Maintenance Mode for displaying maintenance or coming soon pages without an additional plugin, and Settings Snapshots for saving and restoring Beaver Builder configurations. It also includes responsive design enhancements, workflow improvements, developer tools, accessibility and performance updates, alongside Beaver Themer 1.6 with new popup layouts and expanded dynamic content capabilities.
- CraftForms 1.5 is set to expand order insights and booking capabilities: The upcoming release will add built-in order analytics, a seasonal booking option for catalog items, dynamic form labels that update as customers type, clearer WooCommerce pricing with taxes, and refinements to the ordering experience.
- Modern Fields Pro is now live: The new release adds 10 features, including repeater fields, relation fields, conditional logic, options pages, custom blocks, and query loop enhancements, allowing users to create and manage custom field setups visually without writing code. Licences are available at 50% off until July 17.
- WooCommerce Bookings gets import/export, calendar, and accessibility updates: You can now import and export booking data without developer assistance, the calendar only displays bookable dates, and the booking form is more accessible.
- Otter Blocks 3.2.0 makes building WordPress pages faster with AI-powered creation and a redesigned library: The release introduces AI tools that can generate full sections and pages, customize writing workflows, and automate form responses, while also bringing a rebuilt Design Library with 150+ templates, a new Content Slider block, improved forms, and WordPress 7.0 support.
- WP 2FA now has a fresh new interface: The update features a redesigned setup wizard, more intuitive navigation, streamlined settings pages, clearer security and authentication controls, and a more unified experience across the free and premium versions
- Maria Ansari explored why WordPress product businesses struggle to grow beyond launch: Drawing on insights from Brad Vincent, James Koussertari, Alexander Gilmanov, Elliot Sowersby, Maciej Bis, Paolo M. Tajani, Ian Misner, Ross Morsali, and other founders of WordPress product businesses, Maria Ansari examines the challenges of growing a plugin or theme beyond its initial launch. Their perspectives cover topics including distribution, customer support, retention, positioning, pricing, and the operational decisions involved in building and growing a WordPress product business.
- Paolo M. Tajani shares his view on which WordPress builders are growing and which are declining: Based on data from WP-Rankings, Paolo says the classic page builder market is shrinking, while Gutenberg-native builders such as Kadence are gaining momentum. He also raises the question of whether the combination of Gutenberg and AI could eventually replace traditional page builders. He also shared estimated install trends for two popular SEO plugins, reporting that Rank Math is gaining nearly 60,000 installs per week while All in One SEO is losing around 34,000. He says the contrasting trajectories suggest the WordPress plugin ecosystem is not declining across the board. Separately, after initially highlighting the rapid growth of the Universally plugin, Paolo later said its install numbers appeared to be inflated by bundled installations through All in One SEO’s onboarding process, raising concerns about how plugin growth is represented in the ecosystem.
- Jonathan Desrosiers reflects on 13 years of contributing to WordPress: Marking the anniversary of his first WordPress Core contribution, Jonathan Desrosiers reflects on his 13-year journey as a contributor, explains the role of “props” in the project, and shares an AI-assisted look back at his contributions over the past year.
- Rodolfo Melogli on why he is moving away from lifetime deals: After nearly 15 years of advocating for lifetime pricing, Rodolfo explains how shifts in the market, the rise of AI, and the need for continuous product updates led him to transition the Business Bloomer Club to a subscription model and rethink the long-term sustainability of his business.
- Jonathan Zazove outlined Shopify’s new approach to strengthening App Store review trust: Shopify is rolling out a dedicated policy against incentivized reviews and expanding its fake review detection to help ensure App Store ratings remain authentic and trustworthy. The changes include stricter enforcement, the removal of inauthentic reviews, and updated guidance for developers on collecting reviews fairly.
- Introducing Yamidoo: Pavel Ciorici announced an AI-first customer support chat tool that provides instant AI answers trained on documentation with seamless handoff to human teams when needed. Interested folks can sign up for the waitlist now.
🚀 NEW PROJECTS
| “If you wanted to make WordPress behave like a static site generator, this plugin is for you.It exposes a full GIT protocol over REST API. Your commits are revisions and your website can be edited fully in markdown.“ Artur Piszek about creating Push MD. |
- Push MD – Git Sync for WordPress Content: The plugin by Artur Piszek adds a Git-based workflow for WordPress content, allowing users to clone, edit, and push posts and pages as Markdown while keeping WordPress as the source of truth. The plugin supports Git diffs, revisions, capability checks, and coding-agent workflows while maintaining WordPress publishing and editing features.
- Woosa MCP: This allows users to connect AI assistants such as Claude and Gemini directly to their WooCommerce stores, allowing users to manage products, update plugin settings, perform bulk edits, and generate reports using simple text prompts.
- PaleSwitch: The plugin allows users to manage frontend light and dark color palettes for Elementor using Global Colors.
- Preflight Handoff Audits: This helps WordPress developers and agencies audit websites before launch or client handoff. It performs read-only site scans to identify potential issues, prioritizes pages that need attention, provides guided recommendations, supports manual review checklists, and generates handoff reports to streamline the quality assurance process.
🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS
More posts and podcasts from the WordPress Community you don’t want to miss
- In this episode of Seriously, BUD?, Bud Kraus conversed with Lumi Ciobanu, who reflected on leaving a long career in music to build a new one in WordPress. She discusses how the transition led her to Automattic, the importance of embracing lifelong learning, and why the WordPress community has been just as meaningful as the software itself.
- Jonathan and Luke, in this Crossword podcast episode, spoke with Sé Reed about her experiences as a WordPress contributor, including her account deactivation, the challenges facing the WordPress community, the role of the WP Community Collective (WPCC), and the importance of leadership, accountability, and open-source contribution.
- Nathan Wrigley conversed with David Snead on this episode of WP Tavern Jukebox about the Secure Hosting Alliance and how greater collaboration across the hosting industry can improve security through shared threat intelligence, abuse reporting, and stronger communication between providers.
- Matt Cromwell over at The Repository examined whether declining WordPress plugin sales signal a broader ecosystem problem, arguing that while many plugin businesses are facing slower growth and closures, the challenges stem from shifting market dynamics rather than WordPress itself.
- Matt Cromwell, the founder of Roots & Fruit, shares why he still uses Agent marketing skills, though they are overrated.
- Brad Vincent tweeted about his experience rebuilding FooPlugins.com website in three weeks with an agent dev team. Check out the new 404 page too.
- Lesley Sim recapped EventKoi’s first half of 2026, highlighting the launch of tickets, the Events Calendar importer, and major feature releases in May and June. She also shared how AI has accelerated development, reflected on the importance of balancing new features with product quality, and outlined plans to strengthen EventKoi’s core features and integrations in the second half of the year.
- Mike McAlister looks back on Ollie’s third year, highlighting the major additions released over the past 12 months, including Pro Extensions, Class Manager, Smart Sync, Menu Designer, WooCommerce support, AI-powered design and writing tools, and the Ollie MCP.
- Takayuki Miyoshi argues against using unofficial WordPress plugin and theme marketplaces, citing security risks and a lack of timely vulnerability remediation.
- Md Shahjahan, CEO of WPManageNinja, shared how he uses FluentCart’s MCP every morning to ask questions about his store and quickly understand how the business is performing.
- Elliot Richmond shared how he migrated a large-scale WordPress site with 400+ properties from Advanced Custom Fields flexible content to a native block theme. The case study covers the challenges of converting 10,590 widgets into blocks, helping the client team adapt to the new block editor using WordPress Playground, and giving them more flexibility to build pages without relying on custom development.
- Henrique Iamarino from the Automattic Design team shared how the team built a production-ready WordPress block theme almost entirely inside the WordPress Editor, using Global Styles, Create Block Theme, local testing, and AI-assisted refinements.
- Austin Ginder shared the AI-powered security pipeline he uses to identify vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins. He explains how Claude helps audit plugin code, validate findings through proof-of-concept testing, and streamline responsible disclosure to platforms such as Patchstack and Wordfence or directly to plugin developers.
- Katie Keith argued that WordPress should be viewed as a channel to reach customers, not the product itself, and explained why solving real customer problems across platforms is becoming increasingly important.
- Carrie Dils explained how a long-running WordPress site was gradually migrated from an Elementor-based setup to a Full Site Editing (FSE) block theme without a full rebuild or content freeze.
- Eric Karkovack highlighted how WordPress users can make the most of AI in the dashboard, arguing that its value depends on choosing the right tasks rather than using it for everything.
- Alex Bickov on how AI isn’t replacing WordPress as many expected; instead, its vast knowledge base and well-established ecosystem are helping it remain a go-to platform in the AI era.
🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE
Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle
- Build & deploy a website using Claude Code on xCloud: From xCloud Hosting
- What is ‘Error Establishing a Database Connection’ & how to fix it in WordPress: From Sucuri
- How to give OpenAI Agents long-term memory (OAMP Tutorial): From Richmond Alake
📆 SAVE THE DATES
Do not miss a WordPress event ever again
- ColorCode: Buffalo 2026 on July 25: The tickets are now available.
- WordCamp US, Phoenix on August 16 -19 2026: The call for sponsors is now open. The tickets are now available.
- WordCamp Philippines 2026 on August 28-29: The call for sponsors is now open. The tickets are also now available.
- LoopConf 2026 on Sept 23-24: The tickets are now available.
- WordCamp Rajasthan 2026 on 3–4 October: The call for speakers and sponsors is now open, and the team has unveiled the story behind their logo.
- WordPress Accessibility Day 2026 on October 7th-8th: The call for sponsors is open. Also, interested folks can apply to be a part of the Translation Team.
- WP Suomi 2026 on October 16: The call for sponsors and speakers is now open.
- WordCamp Canada 2026 on November 5-6: The call for sponsors and volunteers is now open.
- CloudFest Americas on Nov 11-12, 2026: The tickets are now available.
- CMS Conf 2026 on 12-14 November: The tickets are now available.
- WordCamp Bengaluru 2026 on Nov 21-22: The event is in the early planning stages and this year’s theme is WordPress and AI.
- WordCamp Athens 2026 on 11-12 December: The call for sponsors, speakers, and media partners is now open.
- WordCamp Europe 2027 on 27 – 29 May: The call for organizers is now open.
🎁 WORDPRESS DEALS OF THE WEEK
Again, these are the best deals of the week, handpicked by yours!
EXCLUSIVE DEALS
- 4 Months free offer on hosting plans of WP Engine (Coupon Code- FREEDOMTOCREATE)
- 10% off on monthly & annual plans at SureTriggers (Coupon Code- WPCONTENT10)
- Up to 84% off at Hostinger (Code NYSALE for an extra 10% off)
- 15% off yearly plans at Videvo (Coupon Code – WPV15)
MORE DEALS
- NordVPN Special Offer (27 May–29 July) – Get up to 77% off + 3 extra months on the 2-year plan (prices start from €2.99 / £2.29 / $3.09).
- 30% off for 4 months on Cloudways + 10 Free migrations ( Promo code- TREAT25).
- Up to 50% off on BookingPress plugin
- Up to 50% off on Paid Membership Pro plans.
- Up to $100 OFF Essential Blocks PRO plugin.
- 50% off 3 months on Liquid Web’s Bare Metal server hosting
- 20% off for Constellation plugin
- 28.65% off for the lifetime plan for the Modern Cart for WooCommerce plugin.
- 33% off for the Uncanny Automator plugin.
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by awesome WordPress Companies 🦸♂️🙌
Last but not least, updates from WP-CONTENT.CO 👇
An earlier decision to hide the Classic block from the block inserter by default in WordPress 7.1 has…
WordPress 7.0.1 is now available as the first maintenance release for WordPress 7.0. The short-cycle update includes fixes…
The WordPress Foundation has released its 2025 financial report, reporting higher revenue and a 27% increase in attendance…
A call for testing has been published for responsive styling, a feature being developed as part of the…
Team WP-CONTENT.CO
Issue #280 | July 15, 2026 | Reading time: 25 mins
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by ProfilePress and WP Job Openings
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