The insider is Kevin Ohashi, founder of ReviewSignal and the WordPress Hosting Benchmarks.

If you’ve worked in the industry or are involved with hosting in any way, you know who he is and that his hosting reviews are the most reliable. Or… the *only* reliable ones.

Watch his interview here: Watch: The Hosting Industry Has a Dirty Secret (Insider Explains)

Remkus just announced The Guild, a new paid professional membership under his Within WordPress brand, aimed at developers, builders, and agencies who want to improve their WordPress skills.

The focus is on structured learning rather than open-ended chat. No Discord or forum — instead, courses, deep-dive sessions, office hours, reusable frameworks, and discussions around real projects and real decisions.

The goal is helping members build better technical judgment over time — understanding why WordPress works the way it does, not just what to do.
The first course (Make WordPress Fast) is already live, with membership opening once the foundations are in place. There’s also an early sign-up option if you want in on the first wave.

Worth a look if you want something more structured and in-depth than most WordPress content out there.

More info here: https://remkusdevries.com/announcing-the-guild/

Ben May of the Code Co published a piece on LinkedIn worth reading even if you’re not in the publishing game:

Publishers’ Side Doors No Longer Work: The Shift to AI-Driven Content

Here are his main points:

• Publishers have always used “side doors” to build audiences — from horoscope columns in the 1930s to SEO-optimised content
• Google Search referrals dropped 34% overall between Dec 2024–2025, but small publishers (under 10k daily views) took a 60% hit
• The cause isn’t purely AI overviews — algorithm updates and content quality penalties are also to blame, though the direction is the same either way
• The real problem is capacity: publishers now need more content in more places, while most newsrooms are stretched thinner than ever
• AI should be used as a force multiplier for routine work, freeing journalists to focus on the high-trust, human reporting no algorithm can replace

Good episode. Nathan plays the skeptic, Jamie plays the AI enthusiast.

The debate centres on a new Claude + WordPress.com integration that gives AI full context of your site – brand, tone, structure – so it can build landing pages, brand docs, and SEO plans without you explaining yourself every time. Jamie’s excited. Nathan’s… less so.

Main things they go back and forth on:

• Is AI content just more slop flooding an already-flooded internet?
• Does using AI to write your thoughts still count as your writing?
• Will CSS/HTML skills become worthless — and does that hollow out the WP community?
• Can any of this actually be regulated, or is it already too late?

Neither really wins. Worth a listen if you’re thinking about where WordPress is heading with all this.

Listen to the episode here: 462 – Debating AI’s impact with Jamie Marsland: content, creativity, slop and the future of WordPress

From their page:

As a Founding Contributor, your Gravatar and dofollow link will appear in our sponsors section on all website pages. Plus, you’ll receive a credit worth double your donation toward attending the next edition! Be celebrated as one of the people who made this event possible.

You can contribute as little as EUR 15.

Contribute here: https://checkoutsummit.com/product/checkout-summit-2026-founding-contributor/

View it here: State of WordPress Security In 2026

A couple of notes about how it’s packaged and not the content:

• They have been running it a few years now. It helped them put their brand on map and now re-asserts them as leaders in the WordPress security space
• It’s not gated. They will get more eyeballs and engagement, which in the medium and long term is more valuable than capturing leads
• The report is readable but has nice splashes of colour and animation
• There’s no navigation except a CTA to get protection (best solution) to what the report is a about (scary problem)
• Graphs are gorgeous, easy to read an meaningful. Assets to share and distribute on the socials.
• Social proof on steroids: testimonials from the influencers that WP influencers are influenced by

I’d love to know to what extend this drives brand awareness and net new business.

Block out March 12th for WP:26 — a free virtual event with a seriously strong lineup.

Mary Hubbard (WordPress Executive Director), Steph Yiu (WordPress VIP CEO), and enterprise teams from CERN, News UK, and PMC will be joining sessions on agentic WordPress, GEO and the future of search, accessibility, and the state of the web in 2026.

It’s worth noting — as a compliment to Human Made — that this is exactly the kind of event the WordPress project itself should be running to promote WordPress for enterprise. Strategic, forward-looking, and aimed at the people making real platform decisions. Kudos to them for stepping up and doing it so well.

👉 https://humanmade.com/wordpress-in-2026-event/

It kinda feels like Human Made are WordPress.org’s Enterprise Marketing department…

I haven’t read the report, but no doubt it’s going to be insightful – their content always is.

Here’s the blurb on their landing page:

“WordPress is entering a new era. Not with one big launch, but through a convergence of themes that will shape how enterprise teams build, govern, and scale digital experiences.”

Get the report here.

I’m excited to share some changes to our membership plans and a new community feature called Discuss.

The Community tier is no more and everyone has been upgraded to Pro. With a Pro Membership you can:

✅ Access to Member-Only Content
✅ Post Comments to blog posts and Notes
✅ Post in the Notepad
✅ Publish a Member Profile
✅ Participate in our Private Community called Discuss
✅ Sign up for Events

I am hoping by removing the cost ‘barrier’ to content, features and participation more folks will join and help each other grow and thrive. That’s our mission.

If you’re an organization and want more visibility on this platform, the Partner Membership tier gives you:

✅ A Company Profile
✅ Job & Project Postings
✅ Publish Press Releases & Announcements
✅ Partner-Exclusive Events
✅ Partner Offers & Discounts

That’s plenty of value there for only $199 / year, and you get to support a publication that doesn’t compromise on quality and sell its soul to affiliate marketing.

How to join

Membership is exclusively for people working in the WordPress ecosystem. I check every application. You can apply here.

Today I learned that Guildenberg shut down.

Their mission was to help businesses grow in the WordPress ecosystem, and the model collaborative.

“Becoming a member of the guild provides you a shared space to collaborate with other members, supported by the Guildenberg team, all focused on helping you grow.”

The reason for closure is not entirely clear to me, but that two of the three co-founders joined Convesio in senior roles.

And that’s the story I am interested in, having worked at Convesio. They’ve hired some seriously talented people – Tammy and Jonathan are at the top of their game.

It will be interesting to track Convesio’s growth in 2026.