WP Tavern #192 – Joshua Bryant on How Dow Jones Is Supercharging WordPress Editorial Workflows
Nov 5, 2025
Joshua Bryant, an engineer at Dow Jones, revolutionizes editorial workflows by embedding the Gutenberg block editor into a standalone React tool, streamlining publishing for major news outlets like the Wall Street Journal. He discusses the motivations behind this decoupling, focusing on speed and minimizing distractions for breaking news. The conversation covers the unique three-system architecture, rapid publishing via the REST API, and the challenges of adapting WordPress for enterprise needs. He also shares insights on collaboration among editors and the open-source community.
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WordPress As The Single Source
- Dow Jones uses a headless WordPress multi-site as a single content source powering many publications.
- Editors keep WordPress for storage and workflows while front ends render content differently for each site.
Embed Editors In Existing Workflows
- Put editors into the tools they already use to remove context switches and save seconds on publishing.
- Use a single-page React app to eliminate page reloads and speed up breaking-news workflows.
Reuse Plugins, Limit Blocks
- Keeping existing WordPress plugins and business logic avoids costly rewrites when moving the editor.
- Limiting available blocks gives editors only what they need for quick publishing while reusing custom blocks.