Read onlineIssue #377 | September 26, 2026 Howdy, Before anything else: if you maintain WordPress sites, go update them. WordPress 7.1.2 shipped on September 22 to patch a single critical vulnerability in page template resolution, one that lets an unauthenticated attacker load a chosen PHP file from outside your active theme's directories. Now let's move on to better things. …

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 pauli@gutenbergtimes.com. 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.

Read onlineIssue #363 | April 18, 2026 Hi there, I am just back from my fourth WordCamp Asia and it was again fantastic! I also enjoyed Mumbai as a city to visit. The energy in the streets, the kindness of the people, the historic sites of many cultures and the deliciousness of the food. It was all an adventure! …

It was great fun to conduct a Workshop at WordCamp Asia contributor day. Roughly 100 students were in the class and it was a great interactive session. I also know that there were quite a few of you who didn't get to join us because there wasn't enough room. Birgit Pauli-Haack workshop on the block editor and full-site editing was a highlight of the entire event.

In this episode, Birgit Pauli-Haack welcomes Beth Soderberg to discuss key updates in WordPress 7.0 and Gutenberg 22.8. They kick off with small talk about shifting seasons in Munich and Virginia before diving into the new content guidelines in Gutenberg 22.7, focused on standardizing editorial voice across AI and human content contributors. Both speakers express healthy skepticism about AI-generated content, stressing that while AI assists with research and “grunt work” like alt text or excerpts, the core value in writing remains human expertise and review.

Read onlineIssue #362 | March 28, 2026 Hi, In less than two weeks, WordPress 7.0 is scheduled to be released. Are you ready? Or are you someone I used to be who waits two to three weeks to see what quirks early adopters find and if they warrant an early point release? Be that as it may, waiting only delays the inevitable, though, sooner or later you get to benefit from the new features and quality of life improvements to the Admin, Editor and Blocks.

Welcome to the Source of Truth for WordPress 7.0! 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 questions, leave a comment or email me at pauli@gutenbergtimes.com. Huge Thank You to all collaborators on this post: Anne McCarthy, Sarah Norris, Ella van Durpe, Maggie Cabrera, Ben Dwyer, Jonathan Bossenger, Justin Tadlock, Dave Smith, Courtney Robertson and a lot more.

🎉 Announcing GT Changelog Podcast Episode 128: Deep Dive Into Gutenberg 22.7 & WordPress 7.0 Dev Notes! 🎉 We’re back with another packed episode of the GT Changelog Podcast! In episode 128, host Birgit Pauli-Haack welcomes JavaScript developer and full-time WordPress contributor Maggie Cabrera for an insightful conversation about all things Gutenberg and WordPress. In this episode, we unpack the highlights of Gutenberg 22.7, with a special focus on the latest features coming to WordPress 7.0.

Read onlineIssue #361 | March 14, 2026 Hi, This week, we saw many updates in WordPress Core with two Betas and three security releases. Your auto-update email folder got plenty of traffic if you are managing more than one website 🤗 The next step for the security team is to backport the 6.9.4 fixes to older version for WordPress, all the way back to WordPress 4.7..

Read onlineIssue #360 | March 7, 2026 Hi there, I held my first walk-through of WordPress 7.0 with friends at the Santa Clarita WordPress Meetup. The group was really excited about all the big new features and the small quality-of-life (QoL) improvements. Jessica Lyschik and I also discussed many features coming to WordPress 7.0 on our latest podcast episode. Listen in if you are curious.

This year's WordCamp Asia just published the first version of its schedule with sessions and workshops. Contributor Day also has a few workshop slots. If you registered for Contributor Day you are looking at three days of learning and discussions. Here is my personal list of talks and workshops, mostly about the block editor, themes or AI in WordPress. I will update the post with the video links after WordCamp Asia once the recordings are uploaded to WordPress TV.

In Episode 127 of the GT Changelog podcast, Birgit Pauli-Haack and Jessica Lyschik dive deep into the upcoming release of WordPress 7.0, focusing on the features arriving with beta 2 and their impact on users and developers. They begin by emphasizing the importance of testing betas, especially for plugin and theme creators, highlighting how early testing helps prevent compatibility issues at launch.

With the new Custom CSS on a block and post/page level, I was wondering if I would know where to look if something needs to be changed that was modified by a Custom CSS setting. Turns out there are 14 different ways to skin WordPress. I am a fan of keeping one source of truth, but it might not always be possible to keep it in theme.json.

Read onlineIssue #358 | Feb 21, 2026 Greetings from snow-covered Munich — or at least it was when we left Friday for Salzburg, Austria, with a one-hour delay after our locomotive engineer got caught in the city's snow-induced chaos. Have a fabulous weekend! Yours, 💕Birgit Table of Contents Developing Gutenberg and WordPress Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners…

In this episode, Birgit Pauli-Haack welcomes Carolina Nymark back to discuss recent Gutenberg releases (22.3, 22.4, 22.5) and preview features coming in WordPress 7.0. Birgit Pauli-Haack shares her recovery journey and emphasizes the value of Carolina Nymark’s expertise. Carolina Nymark introduces herself as a long-time WordPress core committer and theme bundle maintainer, explaining her role in triaging, testing, and updating default themes.

Read onlineIssue #357 | February 14, 2026 Hi there, If you celebrate it, Happy Valentines day! 💖 This week, WordPress developers and co-workers share their experiences exploring AI workflows around development and creation. These are exciting times for sure! It's good to be back behind the mic after an operation that irritated my vocal cord nerve — I'm still a bit hoarse, but that's nothing new for this podcast, and I'm perfectly healthy otherwise.

Read onlineIssue #356 | February 7, 2026 Hi there, AI is on my mind a lot these days. It speeds up my life when I research or analyze content, tools and technology. Even more so when working on workflow automation. This week saw an "explosion of visible AI progress in the WordPress project" as James LePage calls it. And on my travel through the feeds Block Themes and theme.json appeared as an important topic.

Read onlineIssue #355 | January 30, 2026 Hi, there 👋 this week, you'll find a great mix of new releases, new tools, new plugins and events. Outside the WordPress sphere I signed up for the FediForum Un-Workshop, an event bringing together people who will discuss obstacles and ideas on growing the Open Social Web. It'll be a three-hour virtual event on March 12, 2026.

Read onlineIssue #354 | January 24, 2026 Hi there! Yes, it's been a while. Did you miss me? I hope you and yours had a great start to the new year, and I wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous 2026. I am infinitely grateful you are a reader on this site and newsletter. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Read onlineIssue #353 | December 20, 2025 Hi there, Welcome to our last edition for the year 2025. I am not ready to reflect on the whole year, however, I am excited for 2026. There will be many new features coming to WordPress with the three major releases and also plenty of bug fixes and quality-of-life enhancement towards consistency. …

Read onlineIssue #352 | December 6, 2025 Hi there, How did the upgrade to WordPress 6.9 go for you and those around you? Did anything break? Or are you waiting for 6.9.1 to come out? Once in a while I get a question on how I keep up with the fast progress and the vast range of updates in Gutenberg and WordPress Core.

The newest episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast, #125, features hosts Birgit Pauli-Haack and JC Palmes discussing a major trio of releases: WordPress 6.9, Gutenberg 22.1, and Gutenberg 22.2. JC highlights several exciting features in WordPress 6.9, focusing on significant developer and editor experience improvements, including the full iframe editor, routing, DataViews, the Interactivity API…

Read onlineIssue #351 | November 29, 2025 Hi there, In case you celebrated it, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, lots of turkey, sweet potatoes, beans, stuffing, gravy and pumpkin pie. Or any kind of pie really 🦃🍁🥧. And lots of love and laughter around your family and friends. I just want to give a huge shoutout to all the WordPress contributors who teamed up to roll out this next big version of WordPress for the hundreds of millions of websites out there and all their users and visitors.

Read onlineIssue #350 | November 22, 2025 Hi there, Munich got hit with the first snow for this Winter. It started slowly on Friday morning, and by the afternoon the flakes got larger and the white started to cover tree branches, roofs and cars. It might all be gone by tomorrow, though, as the weather forecast shows -7 °C (19.4 °F) with sunshine.❄️ I am still a Floridian Weather whimp, but I like the snow covering the overcast gray of an Autumn day.

Ah, the early 2000s internet – a glorious land of dial-up tones, flashing banner ads, and the wild dream of having your own personal blog. Content management ba