Oh the WordPress media industry — how we love thee.

When the news of WPDaily.co shutting down landed on us so abruptly, it left a few of us scratching our heads to say the least.

What would happen to it? Who would buy it? Where’s my WordPress news?

Well it’s been a few weeks since the announcement of it’s new home TorqueMag.io and I’ve invited the woman behind the scenes to tell us all about it.

Meet Michelle Oznowicz former journalist, celeb ghost writer and now the future of WordPress news. In this episode we chat about how she found this job, what the plans are for Torque and offers advise to aspiring journalists using WordPress.

Enjoy!

Interview with Michelle Oznowicz of TorqueMag.io

Listen to the audio version

(Hooray video again! I figured it was important for the audience to see the face behind the news site. Since she’s fresh to the WordPress scene and all. What do you think? Keep doing video or audio is just fine?)

Why Michelle?

A common question I saw fluttering around the Twittersphere on their launch day.

Why Michelle? What does she know about WordPress?

Well nothing really and that’s the point.

In an attempt to stay unbiased and have a platform where WordPress news can be curated by the community — WPEngine hired Michelle.

She brings her strong background of community building and a dedication to journalism up to bat for the new slugger in WordPress media.

Can she hit a home run? You be the judge.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

My opinion

WordPress media.

That’s what this is all about and I shared my thoughts in that previous article. I think Michelle is in an interesting space like the rest of us.

On one hand folks say we don’t need WP news, on the next there’s more and more of it being slung at us.

I think she’s going to do a great job at building her own voice in our community and I wish her the best.

It’s not going to be easy, but as entrepreneurs we know this.

On ads

There’s no ads on Torque…yet.

We talked about her experience as a journalist and how ads can lesson the integrity of a publication.

While I don’t necessarily think ads are a bad thing, it’s going to be interesting to see how WPE handles this in the months to come.

What are your thoughts on ads? Let me know in the comments.

Video, themes and e-mail lists — oh my!

Now that it’s been a while since I’ve uploaded to YouTube, is it refreshing to have it back?

By the way, if you like this theme we unveiled it to the world on WordPress.org.

Lastly, if you like what I do please share it and sign up to the newsletter.

Outro Music: http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/1017514/ready-set-stay