Daily Kos is moving to WordPress
For most of its existence, Daily Kos has run on custom-built publishing platforms. That might’ve made sense a decade or two ago, but now it’s expensive, outdated, and difficult to maintain. Every small change or upgrade requires complex engineering work, even as the existing system demands constant upkeep. Just maintaining security patches has been a difficult process. New features have often been promised but rarely delivered. That’s on me—and yeah, it’s embarrassing.
But starting now, everything changes.
We’re officially migrating Daily Kos to WordPress—the world’s most popular and powerful open-source publishing platform, which powers major media outlets like The Nation, Time, Vogue, Variety, New York Post, Rolling Stone, Vox, Wired, and many more.
Our current system has served us well, but it’s old, brittle, and costly. By moving to WordPress, we’ll unlock access to a vast ecosystem of tools, faster updates, and modern features. That means better usability, more time spent building what you actually want, and less time patching legacy code from as far back as 2004.
I’ll have more to say about the migration in the weeks and months ahead, but this is truly game-changing. We’ll be able to tap into a huge library of community-enhancing plugins. Want account badges? There’s a plugin for that—no more months and months of custom dev work. Some of you would really like this plugin. We’ll have lots of options to choose from, depending on what we want to implement.
We can even build an app without spinning up a separate, expensive team.
All of this means a system that’s vastly easier to maintain and update. No more vague promises. No more spinning our wheels.
We’ve partnered with an experienced outside vendor to build and launch the new Daily Kos. The initial scope is a straight port of the existing site, with a refreshed homepage layout. No bells or whistles—yet. But once we’re live, and with enough community support, we’ll be able to add all sorts of great new features quickly and affordably by leveraging the plugin library.
While the timeline might shift depending on what we uncover during development, the vendor is confident we can launch early next year.
You help shape what comes next.
This isn’t just a migration. It’s an opportunity to rethink what Daily Kos can be—while staying true to our community roots.
That’s why we are forming a new Community Advisory Group, which will work directly with the product and leadership teams to help initially guide:
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The features we prioritize for launch.
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The legacy tools we keep, cut, or evolve.
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What innovations we build next.
I’ve written before about how the economics of media have transformed—in a good way. In the past, when email list-building and advertising made up two-thirds of our revenue, you were the product. Our customers were campaigns, agencies, and media buyers.
Today, reader support and donations account for 80–90% of our revenue. That changes everything. Now we are the product, and you are the customer. That means we have to be fully responsive to your needs and priorities.
So we’re not just switching platforms—we’re empowering the community to help shape the future of Daily Kos.
We’re already inviting key community members—those who’ve demonstrated leadership in organizing and building this space—to join the advisory group. I’m genuinely thrilled to work with this new batch of pioneers. Like, so excited.
Honestly, one of the most frustrating things about our current situation with the Justice Department is that I’d planned to spend this summer talking and scheming with you all about the next evolution of Daily Kos—and fundraising to make it happen. I hate to have to ask you again for support.
But that’s part of the new revenue reality: You guys fund Daily Kos, and we also need your support to fund this migration. But it’s going to be so worth it. It’ll mean we can finally start delivering on the community’s long-standing wishlist—a wishlist you can define.
This is the future we’ve been working toward: more flexibility, more innovation, and, most importantly, more collaboration with you, the community that’s kept this site alive and thriving for over two decades.
In July and August, we’ll work with the advisory board and staff to decide what features we’ll carry over—and what we can let go. The less we port, the cheaper and faster the project will be. But nothing is gone forever! Thanks to WordPress, we can rebuild later, easily and affordably.
And then? We’re off to the races—working with you to bring the tools and features we all want.
You can help fund the project here