Jamie Marsland, a well-known figure in the WordPress community, has officially joined Automattic as the Head of WordPress.org YouTube. Previously, he had collaborated with WordPress.com on a series of YouTube videos titled ‘build and beyond.’
In the official announcement, the Executive Director of WordPress, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, said, “ Jamie’s extensive experience in the WordPress community and his passion for empowering creators through this medium makes him the ideal person to lead our efforts in expanding and enhancing our YouTube presence… He will oversee the creation of high-quality content, ensuring our channel remains a valuable resource and a source of inspiration for WordPress enthusiasts worldwide while inspiring and empowering other open source content creators to further the movement.”
She highlighted that the WordPress YouTube channel has become a trusted source of information and inspiration and experienced a 6x increase in monthly views and engagement since 2023.
Pootlepress & WordPress Speed Build Challenge
Jamie Marsland is no stranger to the WordPress community. He is the founder of Pootlepress, a leading WordPress development company known for products such as Gutenberg Pro, WooBuilder Blocks, Storefront Blocks, and WooHoo Bar.
Recently, he took the WordPress world by storm with his WordPress Speed Build Challenge, in which participants have 30 minutes to recreate a famous website using WordPress. He successfully roped in celebrities like Ben Ritner (Founder of Kadence Theme), Justin Tadlock (Developer Relations Wrangler at Automattic), Brian Gardner (WordPress advocate at WP Engine), Nick Diego (Developer Relations Advocate at Automattic), Rich Tabor (Product Manager at Automattic), Jonathan Jernigan (Owner and founder at APEX Web Solutions) and Jessica Lyschik (Frontend and WordPress developer at Greyd)
This approach to engaging the WordPress community has been a breath of fresh air, especially for a platform that has historically shied away from heavy marketing. Simon Harper, owner of SRH Design, once remarked: “If WordPress is going to stay relevant or continue to grow, it needs to consider marketing…..WordPress has a PR and Marketing problem.”
Marsland’s Speed Challenge and YouTube videos (like Wix’s Masterplan to conquer WordPress: The Inside Story!, Remaking Famous Websites series) got people talking about WordPress.
Before the official announcement, Marsland had cheekily teased his Twitter followers with a tweet: “I’ve got 3 BIG bits of WordPress news coming down the track very soon.”
The community’s response to his selection has been overwhelmingly positive. Matt Mullenweg tweeted, “Our videos are going to be so much better now. :)” Other community members echoed this sentiment with comments like, “There’s no one better to bring some much needed focus and energy to WordPress video content.”, “Couldn’t have chosen a better person!” and “It’s a great move for the WordPress Community.”
Future Plans
Jamie Marsland has shared that he will continue to maintain his plugins and YouTube channel and will restart the WordPress Speed Build Challenge next month. He also hinted at a big name in the WordPress space who would be his co-host for the new ‘WordPress Unplugged‘ live Podcast.
