http://vimeo.com/73479976
Watch the video above. See the beautiful and collaborative writing experience that Editorially built? And now it’s gone.
Only, why?
This seems like a perfect opportunity for Automattic to be able to keep a great project afloat. And it could also end up being really great for their bottom line.
Editorially has great brand recognition, huge names behind it, and works really well. The response today to their announcement that it would be shut down was met with overwhelming disappointment. Literally nobody saw it coming.
Automattic has a huge commitment to publishing, and collaborative writing would be a huge win for WordPress. Not to mention, Automattic recently acquired Simperium, the makers of Simplenote (my favorite notes app); so they have a clear interest in data syncing and collaboration.
With Simperium / Automattic engineers available to help support Editorially, I think it could be really great. And the potential gains for WordPress.com and Jetpack are obvious. I hope Automattic is at least looking into this option.
Editorially stated they weren’t able to attract enough users to remain viable, which indicates a marketing problem. That is, if the demand for such a product existed to begin with–I don’t know.
If it is a really great solution to a big enough pain point then I agree- it would be a great way for Automattic to step in and save a ton of development time and not have to put a bunch of engineers on the job from square one. Especially if it indeed was just a back-end marketing issue, and the original Editorially team just didn’t know how to get enough traction for their product, to use a cliche.
I’d sort of be surprised if Automattic didn’t at least look into the possibility, and see where the opportunities lie. If the research was done by Editorially on the front end, and there is significant market demand, and the product is solid, which it seems to be, then they could probably scoop it up for a good price and market it into an added value-type feature that would help grow their market share. There does seem to be a growing clamor for changes to the WP editor, at least in the limited circles I’m exposed to.
I hope Automattic buy it but don’t integrate it.
Editorially is a product for a distinct market. Leave it as it is but perhaps tighten up the integration with WP so that the people it is aimed at would never have to enter the Admin interface unless they had to perform an Admin task.
My main hope, though, is that this is just a temporary set-back in the development of purpose-built separate interfaces that provide API-driven content publishing to WP, and not the death-knell.
I agree that an Automattic acquisition of Editiorially would be right up their alley, even if it’s primarily just for the acquihire.
Editiorially’s goodbye post states their team is available for hire. Not a day goes by where I don’t see some sort of Automattic recruiting tweet. It’s pretty much a match made in heaven.
I could see them rolling out this functionality for WordPress.com uesrs, and eventually to Jetpack for self-hosted sites.
Here’s another possibility though: what about Copyblogger Media?
They seem to favor spinning off their own businesses over acquisitions, but this would also be in-line with the rest of their publisher-focused service offerings, albeit toward a more marketing-oriented crowd.
Either way, I doubt this is the last we hear of Editiorially.
Not going to happen. And I predict if they did buy it, that they would dismantle it, and slowly integrated it into core- or just investigate the technologies used. I mean look at Poster: http://www.tomwitkin.com/projects one of the best…if not the best WordPress independent clients ever made was bought, and just taken off the store. I wish I bought it the app prior to it being taken down.
Oh please, if only. I want to pay for Editorially. And being able to publish direct to your WP blog would be delicious.
I can only hope Automattic will acquire Editorially.
It would make me a very happy antipodean.