Automattic Cuts Weekly Contributor Hours to WordPress.org by 99% - Community Members Fear 'Beginning of the End'

You’ve undoubtedly heard the news by now. But just in case you haven’t, the news is BIG. This isn’t just another case of pineapples on pizza ladies and gentlemen. This is a massive shift in how open-source WordPress has functioned for over a decade – ever since the Five for the Future program was introduced. ¹

Last week, Mary Hubbard, the new Executive Director of WordPress publicly announced that Automattic would be cutting their weekly contributor hours to WordPress.org from roughly 4,000 to a mere 45. ²

To understand immediately why this is going to have a number of implications across WordPress, it’s because Automattic was the single largest contributor to open-source WordPress.

By far.

Yay! 🎉 You made it to the end of the article!

By Martin Dubovic

41 articles

Martin wrote his first e-book and built his first website using Weebly to market it and sell it in 2013. After making his first sale, he knew he was onto something. A few years later he made the switch to WordPress with the help of CodeinWP's tutorials and articles, and from then on he became a full on WordPress addict. When he's not WordPress-ing, you can find him doing pullups, handstands, and drinking matcha.

Follow Martin:

2 Comments

Most Voted

Newest Oldest

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Knut

January 21, 2025 1:38 am

This sounds a lot like the beginning of the SCO – Linux battle. And where is SCO now? The open source Linux came out on the top and SCO disappeared into obscurity.

Editor

Martin Dubovic

February 1, 2025 3:43 am

Reply to Knut

That’s a good analogy. Thanks for sharing (and for reading).

Or start the conversation in our Facebook group for WordPress professionals. Find answers, share tips, and get help from other WordPress experts. Join now (it’s free)!