10 Feb 2026, 3:00 pm

For birders in Bedfordshire, England, having access to the right information can make or break a day out. The Bedfordshire Bird Club has long been a hub for the county’s passionate birding community, but their website wasn’t keeping up with how people actually bird today.

“The old website didn’t work on mobile phones, and obviously everybody in the birding community is now using their phones out in the field,” explains Tom Jackson, a committee member at the club. For a community that lives and breathes birding, that was a serious problem.

Enter WordPress.com.

One redesign later, the club has a modern, mobile-friendly site that puts essential birding information right where it’s needed: in members’ hands (assuming they’re not already holding binoculars). The new site—now hosted on Pressable—features an interactive map of birding locations across the county, complete with practical details like parking information, what species you might spot, and even how to find each site.

“The website is just amazing,” says Kathy Blackmore, the club’s walk organizer. “It looks so inviting, so modern. The information is all accessible, it’s got lots of fabulous photographs.”

The transformation was about more than simple aesthetics. No one at the club had the technical expertise or time to tackle such a project on their own, so Automattic’s special-projects team worked with the BBC—not that BBC, this one—to implement all the features the club needed. The result is a site that matches the passion of Bedfordshire’s birding community and makes it easier than ever for members to share their enthusiasm for birds, conservation, and the natural world.

After all, the best website is one that gets out of the way and lets you focus on what matters. Which, in this case, has two wings and is liable to fly away before you get a good look at it.

Learn more about how Automattic’s special projects team approached the site design here.

4 Feb 2026, 12:00 pm

Broken links on the web are inevitable, but losing valuable context doesn’t have to be. 

At Automattic, we believe the web should be a lasting, reliable resource for everyone. Over time, however, links break. Pages move, domains don’t get renewed, sites go offline, and valuable content disappears. This is known as “link rot,” and it has been quietly eroding the web since its inception.

We’re excited to announce a collaboration with the Internet Archive to help solve this problem: the Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer, a new free WordPress plugin that keeps your links alive.

The plugin works quietly in the background of your WordPress site to protect your content and your readers’ experience. It automatically scans your posts for outbound links, checks the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine for archived versions, and creates new snapshots when none exist. When a linked page goes offline, the plugin seamlessly redirects visitors to an archived version, ensuring your content remains useful and your readers never hit a dead end. It even archives your own posts whenever they are updated, building a long-term record of your site’s history. Link checking is ongoing, so if the original link starts working again, the plugin stops redirecting to the archived version.

This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to preserving the open web. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been saving the digital history of the internet, and we’re honored to help bring that mission directly to WordPress sites everywhere.

Protect your links without taking your eyes off your latest post. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer is open source, free to use, and available now on WordPress.org. 

3 Feb 2026, 2:00 pm

Open source software thrives when people can learn it, use it, and build real careers with it. That’s why education has become a critical part of how Automattic invests in the open web—and why we’re proud to partner with the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) to make a donation to UIC Tech Solutions Open Source Fund.

The UIC Tech Solutions Open Source Fund is focused on advancing digital accessibility and AI literacy through open source systems. Its first initiative, AI Leaders, is the nation’s first workforce-focused AI literacy course, which is designed to connect open source learning directly to real jobs. 

AI Leaders is not a traditional academic course and not a bootcamp. It’s a workforce-first program that teaches AI literacy through execution. Students learn how to evaluate, apply, and work responsibly with generative AI by building WordPress-powered projects that reflect how modern teams actually work. This is hands-on learning, grounded in real tools and real expectations.

Participants earn a WordPress micro-credential and become eligible for job placement. Students are paid for their time in the program, reinforcing that this is workforce development—not unpaid training or speculative credentialing. 

This initiative represents a step toward establishing WordPress as an industry-based credential aligned with measurable workforce outcomes. If successful, this opens the door to a broader portfolio of WordPress-aligned credentials tied to recognized standards and real employment pathways.

We hope that our support will help grow the WordPress contributor base, position WordPress as a platform for applied AI work, introduce WordPress to younger generations, develop a credential framework, and create sustainable models that support the long-term health of the open source ecosystem.

This initiative brings together academia, AI, and the open source community by design. UIC is leading curriculum development, cohort management, and student onboarding and delivery, with oversight from the WordPress Foundation—ensuring the program is accessible, rigorous, and rooted in public benefit.

At Automattic, we believe open source delivers its greatest impact when it leads to tangible products and economic opportunity. Investing in programs like AI Leaders is how we help ensure the future of AI—and the web itself—remains open, accessible, and shaped by everyday people.  

29 Jan 2026, 3:00 pm

It’s no secret that newspapers across the country exist in a fragile ecosystem. Automattic has long supported journalism and local media with investments in publications and platforms like Longreads, The Atavist, and Newspack. We believe that local news still matters—and now more than ever. That’s why we’re sponsoring Local News Day on April 9, 2026. 

According to a recent annual report from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, nearly 3,500 U.S. newspapers have disappeared since 2005. Not only has that destroyed more than 270,000 jobs, but it’s left one in four Americans with limited access to a local print newspaper.

Yet, in a recent New York Times opinion piece, American Journalism Project CEO Sarabeth Berman notes a silver lining. “While the market failure of the newspaper business has been well documented,” she writes, “what is less known is how communities all over the country have responded to this crisis.” Americans still have a healthy appetite for local news, and although print newspapers are vanishing, local news thrives elsewhere: email, WhatsApp, YouTube, and other digital outlets. 

Local News Day is the creation of John S. Adams, investigative reporter and founder of Montana Free Press, a Newspack publisher. Together with Montana Free Press, Press Forward, the American Journalism Project, and Automattic’s own Newspack and WordPress.com, we’re supporting the goal of connecting people with trusted local outlets and growing the audience of local newsrooms around the country. 

Local News Day is a nonpartisan day of action, with organizations, businesses, and individuals invited to participate in any way that feels authentic to them. Think of it like Earth Day or National Voter Registration Day—an opportunity for partners, newsrooms, and local communities to celebrate in their unique way. There are plenty of ways to get involved, including partnering with Local News Day, adding your voice to amplify the impact, and putting your newsroom on the Newsroom Locator Tool. Learn how to join the movement. 

19 Dec 2025, 7:44 pm

Exceptional products are shaped by visionary leadership, rigorous expertise, and long-term thinking. We’re honored to welcome Stephen Wolfram as Special Advisor to Automattic. 

If you know Stephen, you know the impact of his work. He is one of the world’s most influential thinkers in computation. As the founder of Wolfram Research and the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the Wolfram Language, his work has shaped how generations of scientists, engineers, and creators understand and use computation: not just as a tool, but as a way of describing the world. 

For decades, Stephen has been committed to a singular vision around computation and knowledge. Also a pioneer in the culture of distributed work, he has been a remote CEO for more than 30 years, while remaining deeply hands-on in product design and development. 

Stephen’s connection to Automattic goes back years. He spoke at our Grand Meetup in 2019, and appeared on the Distributed podcast with our CEO Matt Mullenweg. Earlier this year, he engaged with teams and joined conversations as an advisor to Automattic. Now, he will do so in an official capacity. 

We’ll share more as the work unfolds. For a deeper look at Stephen’s thinking, we recommend digging into his website—particularly his 2019 essay “Seeking the Productive Life,” which even includes a field-tested setup for hiking outdoors while typing on a laptop. Welcome to Automattic, Stephen!

30 Oct 2025, 10:00 am

There’s liking podcasts, and then there’s Arielle Nissenblatt. As Head of Community and Content at Pinwheel by Audily and founder/CEO of the EarBuds Podcast Collective, Arielle has been working in, writing about, and podcasting about podcasts since 2017. As you can imagine, that requires a fair bit of actually listening to podcasts. (“Five-plus” hours a day, according to her.) And for that, she depends on Pocket Casts.

Arielle first discovered Pocket Casts by word of mouth—”everybody talks about Pocket Casts in the podcast industry,” she says—but she sticks with it because it checks two fundamental boxes. First, it’s easy to use; second, it has all the podcasts anyone could be looking for. Add in folders, smart playlists, cross-device sync, and a heap of other features, and you’re looking at a podcast listening app that’s as powerful as you need it to be while still being as simple as you want it to be.

“Since I really started listening to podcasts [in] 2014,” she says, “I feel like my mind has been opened to new people, new stories, new concepts that I never would have gotten to know about otherwise.” She’s dedicated her career to helping other people find, share, and create their favorite new podcast—and Pocket Casts is a crucial part of that recipe.

Check out Arielle’s weekly podcast picks on the EarBuds podcast.

24 Oct 2025, 2:05 pm

Automattic was founded on a commitment to open source, and we have been dedicated to protecting that promise ever since. Our support of WordPress has helped democratize publishing and build a vibrant community—one that now powers tens of millions of websites. 

WP Engine began providing hosting services for WordPress users in 2010, making largely nominative use of WordPress marks.  

Unfortunately, we believe that while under private-equity ownership, WP Engine has abused the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks and exploited the goodwill built over decades by Automattic and the WordPress Foundation.  

In counterclaims filed today against WP Engine, Automattic very clearly lays out its allegations about how a high-profile private equity firm made a bad bet and then inflated the value of WP Engine as a way to continue to collect management fees and to obscure their mistake. The counterclaims allege that they did it through several years of engaging in sustained trademark misuse, deceptive branding, and broken community commitments—actions that undermined the open source ecosystem on which its business depends. 

This is not a fight Automattic sought out. We tried to resolve the tactics we saw WP Engine engaging in, which began after Silver Lake invested in the company. We watched them hollow out their “Five for the Future” pledge and exploit our trademarks. We increasingly heard from users who had been misled to think that WP Engine was WordPress and sought our help to resolve technical issues caused by WP Engine. To ensure that WordPress and the entire developer community continue to thrive, we took this action and will fight vigorously to end these abuses.

20 Aug 2025, 2:34 pm

At Automattic, we think of our work habits and patterns, together with the software we make and use, as the “Automattic Operating System (AOS).” And, just as with a non-virtual operating system, our AOS is continually being fine-tuned and updated. We iterate frequently, not to make shiny new things for their own sake, but to continuously improve how we serve our customers and support each other. Case in point: Avoiding needless meetings.

Less is more

You might imagine that as a fully distributed, remote-first, remote-last, remote-always company, Automattic must keep its people constantly stuck in Zoom meetings, but the truth is the opposite. Relying instead on asynchronous, written communication—via Slack, Linear, and our own P2 platform—enables us to work with best-in-class partners wherever in the world they choose to be located. No worries about time zone differences. No hours spent on discussions we can take care of in a few minutes of writing. More time to think and create, less time spent blinking into computer cameras. Sounds good, right?

Here, care of our CEO Matt Mullenweg, are the questions we ask ourselves before agreeing to any synchronous meeting:

1. Am I investing time toward the things that are doing the most to help me grow and improve my ability to contribute?
2. How much of my time is contributing to my team’s goals, and choosing the right ones?
3. Is the work effective? Is it moving the needle? Can I describe it to a friend over dinner in a way that gets them excited? Can I blog about it?
4. Are all my meetings so effective that I look forward to them? (Don’t laugh. It is possible.)

One life to live

Synchronous time in a distributed organization is precious—even sacred. And while we spend it generously when onboarding new employees, we maintain a better work/life balance—and healthier, more productive mental attitudes—by keeping inessential meetings to a minimum. If you’d rather work than sit through endless conversations, we may just be the place for you.

For more about Automattic, visit our website. (Hint: You’re soaking in it.) And while you’re here, check out our 20 year timeline. If you like what you see, consider working with us. Our open jobs are some of the most exciting in open source and tech, and our benefits and pay are pretty sweet, too.

12 Aug 2025, 12:00 pm

Journalism provides a crucial link for any community—which is why, from its founding in 1999, The Haitian Times became required reading for members of the Haitian diaspora living in the New York City area. Not only did the newspaper cover local news, but it reported rigorously on stories coming out of Haiti: Journalists from the Times were among the first to arrive after a massive earthquake struck the country in 2010.

And in 2021, having transitioned from a daily printed paper to an online-first publication, The Haitian Times turned to Automattic’s Newspack as its all-in-one solution. Newspack combines the power and stability of WordPress with a suite of tools catered specifically to the needs of journalists; the resultant technology stack helps more than 200 outlets publish stories, measure success, manage donations, and increase reader engagement. 

For The Haitian Times, this toolset was crucial. “While we were able to teach ourselves what we needed to get the business going, we needed to be able to know that we had a secure system — that we had a team of folks who were thinking about the things that we’re not thinking about so that we could continue telling those stories,” says Vania Andrè, the Times’s editor-in-chief and publisher.

That includes security from online threats. Just before the 2024 US Presidential election, a Times editor was doxxed and swatted in retaliation for the paper’s coverage of threats and racist attacks made against Haitian Americans. “The one thing that really gave me peace of mind was that, while this was all happening, we had our folks at Newspack who were already thinking about our cybersecurity before I even had a chance to reach out,” says Andrè. 

Such peace of mind has allowed the Times to prioritize its content above all else—and to grow while doing it. Using Newspack’s Audience Management tools, the publication was able to more than double reader donations, strengthening its ability to cover the community for many years to come. “When I think about our reach, our audience, our coverage over the next several years,” says Andrè, “it’s really going to be about following where those folks are going, wherever they are in the world, to make sure that we’re telling their stories . . . and highlighting everything that they’re dealing with.”

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29 Jul 2025, 11:47 pm

On July 16, we invited friends and media to our Automattic Space in NYC’s NoHo to celebrate Beeper’s major new update. CEO Matt Mullenweg shared his thoughts on how Beeper’s powerful open source solution—which brings all your conversations from various platforms into a single, secure app—fits alongside Automattic’s long-term vision of democratizing publishing, ecommerce, and messaging. Beeper CEO Kishan Bagaria closed out the presentation by walking us through the app’s new features, followed by a night of music from DJ FaltyDL and locally sourced snacks. 

Sharing a great evening with friends is the original group chat, and made for a perfect way to kick off the next chapter of Beeper. We can’t wait for you to try it. Download it now, and experience the event through the gallery below.