Newspack
Summary
A WordPress-based platform aimed at small- and medium-sized news organizations.
Parent organisation: Automattic
Type of organisation: Privately-owned company (or group)
Market share: Very niche
Pricing: $1,000/organisation/month-$2,000/organisation/month
Factors driving pricing: Customer size
Skills needed to set-up: Cannot tell
Skills needed to use: Cannot tell
Parent organisation: Automattic
Type of organisation: Privately-owned company (or group)
Market share: Very niche
Pricing: $1,000/organisation/month-$2,000/organisation/month
Factors driving pricing: Customer size
Skills needed to set-up: Cannot tell
Skills needed to use: Cannot tell
Pros
Open Source alternatives available
Shares product roadmap
Transparent pricing model
Cons
Reliant on 3rd-party data APIs
Unclear data policies
Lacks accessibility statement
Does not share diversity data
Full Product Data Collection
Data collected January-February 2020
| Product name | Newspack |
| Product URL | https://newspack.blog/ |
| Parent organisation | Automattic |
| Workflow category | Publishing & distribution |
| Date product founded | 2019 |
| Product description | A WordPress-based platform aimed at small- and medium-sized news organizations. |
| What type of company or organisation is the product owned by? | Privately-owned company (or group) |
| Is the company profit-making? | Cannot determine |
| How is this product funded? | Investment by parent company or group |
| What market share does the tool have? | Very niche |
| Is there an Open Source alternative in this product space? | Yes. Largo |
| When did the company last release new features? | N/A still in private beta |
| Have they shared details of the product roadmap? | Yes. March 2020: Public launch |
| Is there talk of the product raising further investment? | No |
| Is there talk of the product being acquired? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy business issues or challenges in the last 12 months? | No |
| Is there a pricing model listed on the website? | Yes |
| How clear & transparent is this pricing model? | Very: full pricing listed |
| What is the range of prices offered? | $1,000/month for newsrooms with gross revenue under $500,000/annum $2,000/month for those above $500,000/annum |
| What factors drive higher pricing? | Customer size |
| What skills are needed to get this tool set up & usable? | Cannot tell |
| What skills are needed to USE this tool day-to-day? | Cannot tell |
| Does this tool use proprietary file formats for saving documents & outputs? | Cannot tell |
| Is the product reliant on 3rd-party APIs or interoperability to function? | Yes. Based on WordPress, but made by WordPress.com’s parent company. |
| Have there been any newsworthy technical issues in the last 3 years? | No |
| How clear is the Terms of Service for users (i.e. publishing customers)? | No public TOS available pre-purchase |
| Does the product have a data collection & usage policy on its website? (Can be a GDPR statement)? | No (or cannot find) |
| Is their data policy “GDPR everywhere”? | No GDPR policy information available |
| Does the product require your audience to sign-in to use it? | N/A not an audience-facing tool |
| IF SIGN IN REQUIRED: Does audience sign-in use 3rd party platforms? | N/A not an audience-facing tool |
| Does the public product website mention how to export or transfer your data to another service? | No / cannot tell |
| Does the public product website mention how to delete your data? | No / cannot find |
| Have there been any newsworthy security breaches with this product in the last 3 years? | No |
| Does the company have an accessibility statement on its website? | No / cannot find |
| Does the company release information on the diversity of the workforce? | No |