Read onlineIssue #376 | September 12, 2026 Howdy, If you're a regular reader, you might be wondering why I'm in your inbox instead of Birgit. She's off on a well-earned three-month sabbatical and handed over editorial duties to me while she's away. The one change: for the next few months, the Weekend Edition will arrive every two weeks or so instead of every week.

Read onlineIssue #375 | August 29, 2026 Hi, There is good news for me and good news for you. The good news for me: with my five-year anniversary at Automattic, I get to go on a 3-month sabbatical, starting this week. It also means not only a break from Automattic but also from the WordPress community, a place that kept me engaged for the last 17 years.

In this 134th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog Podcast, Birgit Pauli-Haack hosts Jessica Lyschik , senior developer at Greyd, to discuss recent Gutenberg and WordPress developments. The conversation centers on the releases of Gutenberg 23.7, 23.8, and WordPress 7.1 ("Mary Lou"), highlighting user-facing enhancements and developer-oriented changes. WordPress 7.1 introduced notable features, including new styling tools, updated media flow, notes functionality for collaboration, and improved support for AI-driven workflows.

Read onlineIssue #374 | August 22, 2026 Howdy, It has been another evenful week for sure! WordCamp US came to an end and WordPress 7.1 was released. Your WordPress profile now has a shortcut w.org/@. If you want to check out mine w.org/@bph (don't forget the @ sign) . Mullenweg mentioned in his closing fire side chat that this could actually work without the redirect in the future.

Read onlineIssue #373 | August 15, 2026 Hi there, Before you read any further, another security updates needs your attention: WordPress 7.0.4 is out. Update now! ⚠️ You might have noticed, that the Gutenberg Times website has a new theme. It's built on top of the Twenty Twenty-Five default theme. I started working on it last year, but was pulled away by other priorities.

YouTube video by Elliott Richmond

Read onlineIssue #372 | August 8, 2026 Hi there, It was another busy release week: the WordPress 7.0.3 security update, WordPress 7.1 RC 1, and Gutenberg 23.7 all landed. More on each below — but before you keep reading, update all your sites to 7.0.3 now. This newsletter can wait… 😉 If you are traveling to Phoenix: safe travels, and pack a sweater — the AC will be cranked up high in every building!

In episode 133 of the Gutenberg Changelog Podcast, Birgit Pauli-Haack hosts Faith Ruth Imokol, a Ugandan web developer and longtime Gutenberg advocate, to discuss the Gutenberg 23.6 release and the upcoming WordPress 7.1 update. The episode opens with insights into the WordPress community in Uganda, highlighting their active WordCamp scene and educational initiatives such as the Campus Connect program, which introduces WordPress to students across the country.

Read onlineIssue #371 | August 1, 2026 Hi there, This week I realized, I have been building websites for 30 years. from Notepad and hand-coded HTML to HomeSiteX over Coldfusion to WordPress, Nodejs and ReactJS to Python and Claude. It's been a fantastic journey. It never gets old. I still learn new things every single day. I cherish most the friends I made along the way.

Welcome to the Source of Truth for WordPress 7.1! Before you dive headfirst into all the big and small changes and pick your favorites, make sure to read these preliminary thoughts about this post and how to use it. If you have any questions, leave a comment or email me at [email protected]. A huge "Thank you" to Anne McCarthy, Justin Tadlock, Isabel Brison, Adam Silverstein, Ramon Dodd, Andrew Serong, Hans-Gerd Gerhards, Marin Atanasov, Krupa Nanda, Isabel Brison, Aaron Robershaw, Ben Dwyer, Brent MacKinnon, Ashar Fuadi, and a lot more.

Read onlineIssue #370 | July 25, 2026 Hi, After a few month dealing with a bad knee and a bad back, I enjoy moving again. As long as the weather is nice, I will be biking, swimming and walking the city with all the tourists that populate downtown Munich. From an SEO veteran's surprisingly upbeat take on WordPress market share to a one-file answer to "what makes a block theme," this week's finds dig a little deeper than the usual headlines.

The term "block theme" is used a lot in WordPress but it was never really clear to me what that meant exactly from a code point of view. While researching The post editor is going full iframe: what block developers need to know before WordPress 7.1, I learned that the outcome of testing WordPress 7.1 Beta 1 may soften the plan: instead of forcing the iframe for everyone, core might force it only for block themes, while classic themes using blocks with apiVersion 2 or lower keep the current 7.0 behavior.

Read onlineIssue #369 | July 18, 2026 Hi there! What a week! WordPress 7.1 Beta 1 (and Beta 2) arrived with a huge array of updates. We'll unpack them together over the next four weeks, right up to the final release on August 19, 2026. One thing shouldn't wait, though: the security release WordPress 7.0.2. Go update your production sites now — this newsletter will still be here when you're back.

For years, the post editor has lived a double life. The Site Editor renders your blocks inside an iframe. The post editor — where most people actually spend their time — renders them directly in the admin page. That split ends with WordPress 7.1: the post editor canvas will always be an iframe, on every theme, no matter what apiVersion…

In episode 132 of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast, host Birgit Pauli-Haack and guest Ellen Bauer explore the latest updates within the WordPress ecosystem. The conversation centers on the releases of Gutenberg 23.4 and 23.5, the recent WordPress 7.0.1 maintenance update, and the strategic roadmap for the upcoming WordPress 7.1.A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to major merge proposals destined for WordPress 7.1 that aim to evolve the core software.

Read onlineIssue #368 | July 11, 2026 Hi there, After a four-week break — courtesy of a sciatic nerve with strong opinions — I'm happy to be back in by office chair and in your inbox. There is plenty to catch up on. Beyond the updates on the new WordPress and Gutenberg versions, you'll find stories below from WordPress veterans on migrating to and working with block themes on client sites and dive into more complex theme solutions or…

WordPress 7.0.1 is now available. As the first maintenance release of the 7.0 cycle, it's strictly a bug-fix release: every included ticket addresses either a regression introduced during 7.0 development or an issue intentionally deferred at the end of the cycle. The release ships fixes for 17 core Trac tickets and 14 Gutenberg PRs. Because this is a maintenance release, sites with automatic background updates enabled will update to 7.0.1 automatically — everyone else should update as soon as possible.

In episode 131 of the Gutenberg Changelog, Birgit Pauli-Haack welcomes Isabel Brison to discuss the latest developments in Gutenberg plugin releases 23.1, 23.2, and 23.3, as well as progress leading up to WordPress 7.1. The hosts highlight recent calls for testing, including collaborative editing—previously delayed from 7.0 due to stability concerns—and the new media editor modal for the image block.

Read onlineIssue #367 | June 6, 2026 Hi there, This is the time of the year when publishing on the Gutenberg Times becomes less frequent. I will be on vacation and back at the beginning of July with the weekend edition, just in-time for Beta 1 of WordPress 7.1. Three more Gutenberg plugin releases will happen before that. What also happened was that someone…

Read onlineIssue #366 | May 23, 2026 Hi there, It's good to be home again. It was an unusually long break, but I appreciate the series of official bank holidays that morph into long weekends away from the computer. And of course, the catch-up is overwhelming. The creativity inside the WordPress community around content creation, development and design is highly energizing.

Read onlineIssue #365 | May 2, 2026 Hi there, May is an action-packed month for the WordPress community, packed with tons of local WordCamps and Campus Connect events. After so long without seeing each other, it’s awesome to get together in person — sharing ideas, storytelling, and just making real connections. In this digital age, those genuine face-to-face moments remind us how much it really matters to show up in person.

Chris Huber, developer at Automattic, released Block Format Bridge, an open-source plugin that addresses one of the more persistent friction points in AI-assisted WordPress workflows: getting AI-generated content into the block editor reliably. The plugin takes a pragmatic approach. Block markup is notoriously difficult for AI to produce correctly — not because AI models lack capability, but because of how the format works.

In this 130th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast, Birgit Pauli-Haack is joined by Tammie Lister to discuss the latest developments in WordPress, Gutenberg, and the broader ecosystem. The conversation opens with Tammie sharing insights from her new role at Convesio, where she works on product collaboration within hosting and payments. The episode highlights Tammie’s upcoming WordCamp Europe talk, focusing on the concept of “human in the loop” with AI.

Read onlineIssue #364 | April 25, 2026 Hi there, Good news, dear friends. WordPress 7.0 has a new release date! May 20, 2026. Announced on Friday, the post featured the updated release party schedule: All release parties happen in the Make #core Slack channel. Everyone is welcome to join. This week, I also traveled to Salzburg, Austria to discuss WordPress 7.0 features with the local community.