Can WP Engine Newsroom Streamline Publishing?

This episode of The WP Minute+ podcast features a live demo of WP Engine Newsroom, a platform designed to streamline WordPress editorial workflows. WP Engine’s Jason Konen joined me to show off the recently launched set of tools. You can watch the video below and check out my thoughts on the product.

Thinking About the Needs of Modern Publishers

WP Engine acquired Big Bite in January 2026. The UK-based agency is well-known for its work with major publishers like The Wall Street Journal and The Times. This background led to a set of tools that address common pain points faced by clients.

That’s the impetus behind WP Engine Newsroom. It’s billed as a “unified foundation for modern media growth”. In reality, this means bringing the fragments of most publishing workflows together inside of WordPress.

The platform includes features aimed at making life easier for content creators, including:

• Collaborative editing capabilities, launched ahead of WordPress core’s own efforts
• Asset management that connects to remote services
• Editorial checklists that prevent publishing until requirements are met
• A custom theme and custom blocks that add features and efficiencies
• The ability to customize your publishing tools and workflows

The live demo felt polished from the get-go. The Block Editor’s interface has been customized to accommodate top-level tabs for the post’s Editor, Meta, and Media. The look is a natural extension of what Gutenberg already is, and doesn’t look bolted on like many third-party tools.

The functionality is just as slick and seamless. The Publication Checklist feature ensures editors can’t publish content without first meeting minimum requirements. And the media management only shows files assigned to the current post – a potential time saver for sites with large libraries. And assets can be pulled from remote sources like Cloudinary or other management platforms.

The latest news isn’t always ready to publish right away. Sometimes, information is embargoed or needs another editorial review. WPE Engine Newsroom has a feature for saving an update without publishing it for such occasions.

There’s also a live news feature that allows editors to add blocks of content and publish them in real time. We’ve seen similar setups on major news sites like CNN. It could be useful for covering breaking news or even live-blogging a sporting event.

Where Does WP Engine Newsroom Fit In?

There’s a lot to like about WP Engine Newsroom. The included tools turn WordPress into a more capable platform for organizations with complex publishing workflows. It’s a different world from the days of installing plugins from multiple vendors and hoping they all work together.

Not surprisingly, you’ll have to be a WP Engine customer to take advantage. One might argue that it turns WordPress into a SaaS (software-as-a-service), thus locking you in.

It’s still WordPress under the hood, however. The Newsroom platform works with any theme and can fit into an existing website. You’re also free to install plugins for anything else you like.

Thus, WP Engine Newsroom is a viable choice for publishers. They’ll gain plenty of useful features and an easier way to manage content. There is some loss of data portability, however. That’s something for organizations to weigh as they look to level up their capabilities.

Overall, it’s hard not to be impressed by Newsroom. It tackles many longstanding obstacles in a user-friendly way. It also caters to custom development. That makes WP Engine a player in the publishing game.

Takeaways:

• Challenges in newsrooms include fragmented tools and processes.
• WP Engine Newsroom aims to provide a unified platform for content creation.
• Collaboration features allow multiple users to work simultaneously.
• Media management innovations reduce cognitive load for content creators.
• Publication checklists enforce compliance and business rules.
• Future developments may include enhanced media asset management.
• The platform is customizable to fit different newsroom needs.
• WP Engine’s acquisition of Big Bite enhances Newsroom’s capabilities.
• The goal is to improve efficiency and innovation in newsrooms.

Important Links:

• WP Engine Newsroom
• WP Engine Acquires Big Bite
• The WP Minute+ Podcast: thewpminute.com/subscribe