In February, I had a call with the Marketing team reps where we discussed a few things that were on my mind and a few things on the horizon. Namely, there are some upcoming shifts in the way we collaborate and how we communicate about WordPress as a whole; I want to share my thoughts on these shifts here.

Some Things on My Mind

This team has been collaborating for a long time on projects that help get information where it needs to go. Many of you have also been sharing with me for a long time that there isn’t a clear idea of what the Marketing team’s goals are.

We all know that marketing (both how WordPressers communicate internally and how WordPress expresses itself externally) is key to growth and trust-building. I’m sure it’s been a struggle to raise the concerns you have and not necessarily have a concept of how to move forward without the proper context.

Marketing for WordPress—for a CMS that supports 40% of the web—is a monumental undertaking and one that requires a lot of coordinated effort. As we head into the merge processes for full site editing, arguably one of our most consequential features of the past decade, that work will get more complex and more pivotal to our success.

What’s on the Horizon

With all of that in mind, there are two big things I want to share:

• In the upcoming releases that include FSE merges, I plan to take on the release squads’ Marketing Role.
• Automattic will be hiring some people to focus on marketing work in the WordPress project, both supporting volunteer work and working on projects directly.

Neither of these changes are a reflection of contributions from marketing folks, rather they reflect an awareness that communicating about the changes full site editing will bring requires a clear voice/decision-maker. There is also the potential need for some contracted advertising work (similar to the video done for WordPress 5.0), which I feel would be inappropriate to ask self-sponsored or volunteer contributors to manage.

I’d like your feedback!

Introducing sponsored contributors into the WordPress marketing space represents a big change. I want to hear your questions and thoughts, so please share them in the comments below!