After WP Engine acquired StudioPress in June, the company began investing in expanding the Genesis team. WP Engine is hiring new people to work on the framework and expand support and community activities.
On the latest episode of the newly revived StudioPress.fm podcast, StudioPress founder Brian Gardner said one of the reasons he sold the company was because he needed outside help to take it where it needed to go in the Gutenberg era. The Genesis community has nothing to worry about when the new editor launches in WordPress 5.0, because StudioPress has already made its framework and themes Gutenberg-ready.
“With regards to Genesis, the good news is that it has no substantial backwards-compatibility issues with Gutenberg,” WP Engine CTO Jason Cohen said. “The main focus of updates to the StudioPress themes are focused on adding styles for the new Gutenberg blocks. However, what we’re most excited about are the brand new features we will be adding to Genesis and the StudioPress themes, that Gutenberg helps enable.”
Cohen said the Genesis community can expect their entire product line to become Gutenberg-first themes that add new features to enhance users’ experience in the editor.
“Beyond just being ‘compatible,’ Genesis will play a big role in being Gutenberg-First,” Cohen said. “That means not only supporting the software and ideals of Gutenberg, but using them for new features. In doing so, it’s our intention to light the way for the countless agencies and developers who use WordPress to fuel incredible digital experiences that are made even easier with Gutenberg.”
Cohen said WP Engine will update all StudioPress themes to include additional features for Gutenberg once the new editor launches in WordPress 5.0. If the release stays on its current schedule, users can expect to see 5.0 on November 19.
Can we expect Genesis child themes to have custom blocks?