WP 3.0.0 – Magazine
Although this deployment doesn’t introduce many new features, it’s a significant milestone for our team. Nearly five years ago, the WordPress Team began the transition away from its highly customized WordPress installation, aiming to unify all of our sites and themes under WordPress’ Gutenberg-based platform. With the launch of the new Magazine theme, that journey is now complete for sites managed by our team. This release also marks the removal of all legacy plugins and themes that once supported the old builders, simplifying our codebase and setting the stage for a more modern, maintainable future.
Introducing Magazine
The new Magazine theme is a major step forward in both design and usability. Built entirely with Gutenberg, it’s now much easier for editors to create and update content without relying on complex templates or custom code.
One standout feature is the ability to customize the theme for each issue, giving teams more flexibility to match branding or seasonal content. We also retired the outdated homepage slider and replaced it with a more dynamic Featured News block that better showcases top stories.
The result is a cleaner, more modern site that’s faster to build and more engaging for readers. We’re excited to see how our creative Magazine team takes advantage of the new tools and design flexibility this theme offers.
AI and your website
Our team has been monitoring the integration of AI features into our WordPress platform and has decided on a measured approach because of several considerations, with data privacy the primary concern. Additionally, quality AI implementation involves substantial costs, technical integration complexities, accessibility requirements, and evolving legal considerations.
We are actively engaged in conducting research on appropriate AI for higher education, collaborating closely with Information Systems. We are engaged with the Administrative AI Working Group to develop comprehensive guidelines and best practices. We remain committed to implementing only those technologies that enhance your experience while upholding the university’s values, and we will provide updates as our work progresses.
We want to hear from you.
We’re working to update this guide to better serve your needs. If you haven’t already done so, please take a few minutes to complete this brief survey.
If you have questions or concerns, reach out to us via our Digital Request Form.
Categories: Deployment