What’s on tap for WordPress core in 2023? Project executive director Josepha Haden Chomphosy recently outlined some big picture goals. By design, the post is light on detail. Haden Chomphosy says the list represents a view from “10,000 feet”.

Perhaps the biggest item mentioned is the completion Phase 2 of the Gutenberg project, which focuses on the customization of the Block and Site editors. From there, the project will begin exploring Phase 3, where collaborative functionality will be on the table.

Other areas of interest include improvements to media management, adding Openverse search in WordPress core, and the return of the WordPress Community Summit.

The goals are ambitious and there is a lot of work to be done. With that, Haden Chomphosy also put out a call for volunteers.

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For WordPress product makers, identifying a target audience can be challenging. There is often difficulty in balancing new features, support, and marketing. After a few years of catering to publishers of all sizes, Newsletter Glue’s Lesley Sim has decided to train her product’s focus on newsrooms and media companies. In a blog post, Sim explained the reasons behind the shift and what it means for current customers.

The folks at Awesome Motive have made their second major acquisition this month. This time around, they’ve purchased Thrive Themes. Known for the Thrive Architect and Thrive Theme Builder products, the company also touches on the LMS, automation, and marketing niches.

Wordfence has released their annual State of WordPress Security report. Takeaways include a higher number of reported vulnerabilities, while fewer of them were categorized as “critical unauthenticated”. One constant is the need to keep your WordPress installation up-to-date. Neglect is still a huge factor when it comes to security.