TechNode has been chosen from nearly 500 applicants for inclusion in the second-phase roll-out of WordPress’ new platform designed especially for small to medium-sized newsrooms. The Google News Initiative is a key backer of the project.
WordPress parent Automattic included 34 organizations in the second batch of users of the Newspack platform, joining the initial group of 11 newsrooms announced in March.
Newspack describes itself as “an open-source publishing and monetization platform, designed to provide a powerful solution for local and niche news organizations.” WordPress aims to “free publishers from the burden of selecting, deploying and maintaining complex software systems,” allowing greater focus on journalism.
“It’s a real honor to be accepted into one of the first groups to help test and optimize Newspack,” said TechNode Editor-in-Chief John Artman. “We’re looking forward to working with their teams to create tools and systems that will be useful for smaller newsrooms like ours around the world.”
“The next wave of journalism is local and niche. We’re proud to be working with Newspack on solving problems for the next generation of journalists,” Artman added.
Key funders of Newspack include the Google News Initiative, the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, ConsenSys, Civil Media, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The group also provides technical and advisory assistance.