One of the ideas behind PublishPress is that local publishers are successfully finding new business models, often powered by WordPress. Here’s some data to back that up from LION, a group that supports local publishers: annual revenue went up by 33% between 2020 and 2021. Most local publishers get by on revenue of just over…
Here’s another very useful WordPress publishing podcast: “Jeremy Green of Endo Creative and Leaky Paywall shares his thoughts on “why WordPress is a great choice for content publishers seeking to monetize with digital subscriptions, plus his favorite techniques for subscriptions.”
Neighborhood Journal is a really interesting experiment in New Mexico, and it is using WordPress of course. It’s a new digital news product that focuses on neighborhood-level news in three “zones” in Albuquerque. The publication aims to foster a “community feeling within the city.” The organization’s website, NeighborhoodJournal.com, will offer free access through June 30….
The Washington City Paper newspaper is ending its print edition after 41 years. The paper lives on via a member-supported WordPress site now. The City Paper team published a long and beautifully-written article about the transition from print to digital: From a technical standpoint, my generation of City People has a significantly easier time producing…
This article from Nieman Lab is a good summary of why local publishers matter (and WordPress is their main tool). The article is a summary of a research paper. To sum it up in a sentence: When papers are sold to corporate owners, the number of local articles can fall by 68%. 1. Acquisition leads…
PublishPress Blocks is one of the most popular plugins for Gutenberg blocks with over 30,000 users. In the latest release of PublishPress Blocks Pro, you’ll find some really cool new design options, including these: Google Fonts: You can choose from over 1,000 fonts to use in your blocks. Content Display block: This block is the…
Quartz is a WordPress publisher that is taking down their paywall. They’ve been going 10 years now and have gone through a few different business models. It looks like they’re moving to selling ads and also premium newsletters. This post explains the thinking behind Quartz’s move.
I got talking to a publisher in California this week: Moonshine Ink in California. They have been publishing for over 20 years. They’re currently WordPress-based, with a print edition. We chatted because they use the PublishPress Authors plugin that our team develop. What particularly stood out to me with Moonshine Ink was the wonderful job…
If you’re in the New York area, you may have heard of Schneps Media or at least you’ve seen their publications. Schneps run dozens of local newspapers and they’re standardized their digital versions on WordPress. Their sites focus on specific areas and communities in New York. They cover local neighborhood news, Spanish-language groups, LGBQT issues,…
We started PublishPress because high-quality journalism is really important, and almost all new, high-quality journalism uses WordPress. The Cardinal News is a great new example from Virginia that launched in early 2022. They have a staff of five journalists, all of whom work remotely. The site is online-only and non-profit. They cover southwest Virginia, an…