WordPress News Roundup January 2014: WordPress 3.8.1 Release, Matt Mullenweg Becomes Automattic CEO and WP Engine Raises $15 Million

January 2014 was a month of leadership and money. Matt Mullenweg took over as CEO of Automattic from Toni Schneider, WP Engine closed a $15 million funding round, and GoDaddy entered the managed WordPress hosting market with aggressive pricing. In core, WordPress 3.8.1 cleaned up after December’s redesign while the 3.9 cycle got a target date and a major editor upgrade.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Investments

• WP Engine raises $15 million: On January 14 WP Engine announced $15 million in growth funding led by North Bridge Growth Equity, its first major round after a 2011 seed round that included Automattic. The money was aimed at growth and enterprise customers.
• Leadership change at Automattic: On January 13 Automattic announced that Matt Mullenweg would become CEO, with Toni Schneider, who had led the company since 2006, moving to focus on new products. Matt also wrote about the change on his blog.
• Aesop Story Engine crowdfunded: The open-source Aesop Story Engine plugin for long-form storytelling reached its crowdfunding goal in late January.

WordPress Core Updates

• WordPress 3.8.1: Released on January 23 after more than 9.3 million downloads of 3.8, 3.8.1 fixed 31 bugs, including issues with the new dashboard and themes screen, a taxonomy query problem in WP_Query and a “dead zone” on submit buttons. It also restored tweet embeds broken by a Twitter API change, and rolled out through automatic background updates.
• 3.9 targets April: The 3.9 schedule pointed to a mid-April release, and work quickly concentrated on media and editing.
• TinyMCE 4.0 merged: On January 18 core developers announced TinyMCE 4.0 was in core, the biggest update to the visual editor in years and a likely source of plugin compatibility work.
• Widget Customizer proposed: A feature plugin to manage widgets inside the Customizer’s live preview was proposed for 3.9 at the end of the month.
• Better tooling for contributors: Core Trac received a design refresh and per-ticket notifications, and an official Git mirror of the develop repository became available.
• Plugin directory checks: The plugin repository started rejecting commits containing PHP syntax errors.

Other WordPress News

• GoDaddy Managed WordPress: GoDaddy launched managed WordPress hosting around January 20, with plans starting at $6.29 a month, automatic updates, a migration tool and a restricted-plugin list. Its pricing put pressure on smaller managed hosts.
• NodeKi shuts down: Managed host NodeKi announced it would close on February 1, blaming unsustainable “lifetime” plans and offering no refunds. Another host, Remly, offered to take in affected customers.
• Google’s first WordPress plugin: Google released its Publisher Plugin for AdSense and Webmaster Tools, its first official WordPress plugin.
• AppPresser: AppPresser launched as a framework for building mobile apps with WordPress.
• Data.gov on WordPress: The US government’s open data portal, Data.gov, was shown to be running on WordPress, with its code published openly.
• Jetpack 2.8: Jetpack added a Markdown module and Publicize support for custom post types.
• Mobile and media: A major update to WordPress for iOS arrived at the end of January, and an Audio/Video 2.0 project was set up to improve multimedia support in core.
• BuddyPress 2.0 plans: BuddyPress announced that 2.0 would let administrators edit user profile fields from the WordPress admin.
• Matt turns 30: Matt Mullenweg marked his 30th birthday in January with a post on his blog, days before taking the CEO role.

Security Alerts and Plugin Vulnerabilities

• Brute-force waves continue: BruteProtect later reported that a four-day period in mid-January saw roughly twice the attack volume of February’s widely reported surge, showing that login attacks had become a constant background threat.
• No core security release: 3.8.1 was a maintenance release, and no critical core vulnerabilities were disclosed this month.

Industry Trends and Insights

• Managed hosting goes mass market: GoDaddy’s entry, priced far below WP Engine and others, signalled that “managed WordPress” was becoming a mainstream product category.
• Lifetime plans don’t last: NodeKi’s collapse was a lesson in the economics of selling recurring services for a one-time fee.
• Government and open data: Data.gov’s choice of WordPress added to its credibility with large public institutions.

Plugin of the Month: Aesop Story Engine

Aesop Story Engine offered components for immersive long-form storytelling, such as chapters, parallax images and timelines, at a time when publishers were imitating “Snow Fall” style features. Its successful crowdfunding showed appetite for richer storytelling inside WordPress.

Host of the Month: GoDaddy

GoDaddy’s managed WordPress launch was the hosting story of the month. The world’s largest domain registrar brought low-cost managed WordPress to a huge customer base, and competitors immediately began comparing prices and features.

Founder of the Month: Jason Cohen

Jason Cohen founded WP Engine in 2010 and helped define managed WordPress hosting. Its $15 million round this month gave the company resources to scale, just as GoDaddy entered the market it had pioneered.

Looking Ahead to February 2014

February should settle which features make WordPress 3.9, with the Widget Customizer and media improvements in contention. BuddyPress 2.0 development is due to begin, and NodeKi customers have until February 1 to move their sites.