PublishPress plugin review and common issues

The editorial calendar shows posts based on their scheduled publication date. Missing posts may be: (1) in a custom status not visible in the calendar — check the calendar’s status filter settings to include all custom statuses; (2) posts without a scheduled date (draft posts with no publication date set) — the calendar requires a date for display; (3) posts assigned to a specific author filtered out by the current author filter — check if an author filter is active; (4) the calendar date range may not include the posts’ scheduled dates — navigate to the correct month/week.

PublishPress Statuses plugin must be active for custom status support. Check: (1) in the block editor (Gutenberg), custom statuses may appear in a different location than the classic editor — look for the PublishPress status panel in the right sidebar; (2) some custom statuses may be restricted by user role — verify the current user has permission to set the configured statuses; (3) clear all caches after creating new statuses; (4) check the current Gutenberg compatibility status in the PublishPress documentation as block editor integration has evolved.

PublishPress Revisions uses WordPress cron for scheduled publishing. Issues: (1) WordPress cron requires site traffic to trigger — on low-traffic sites, cron may not run at the exact scheduled time; set up a true server cron to run wp-cron.php every few minutes via your hosting control panel; (2) check if the revision is in “Approved for Scheduled Update” status — revisions in other statuses are not automatically published; (3) verify the site timezone (Settings → General → Timezone) matches the timezone used when scheduling the revision.

In PublishPress → Statuses, create four custom statuses: “Pitch” (initial idea submission), “In Progress” (writer working on the piece), “Editorial Review” (ready for editor), “Approved” (cleared for publication). Configure which user roles can set each status (e.g., only Editors can set “Approved”). In PublishPress → Notifications, create notifications for each status transition: when status changes from “In Progress” to “Editorial Review,” notify the assigned editor; when “Approved” is set, notify the author. This workflow ensures posts move through defined stages with automatic team notifications at each transition.

With PublishPress Authors active, a new “Authors” panel appears in the Gutenberg sidebar when editing a post. Click the panel to add multiple authors — search for WordPress users or create guest author profiles (useful for external contributors without WordPress accounts). Configure the author box display in PublishPress Authors → Settings → Author Box to show multiple author profiles below the post content. Authors appear with their photo, bio, and optional social links in a configurable author box layout.

For a 2-person team (writer + editor), the free PublishPress Planner plugin provides the editorial calendar and the free PublishPress Statuses plugin adds the “needs review” custom status without cost. The full paid suite is most valuable for teams of 5+ with formal content workflows. For small teams, using the free individual plugins selectively provides meaningful workflow improvement without the full suite investment.

PublishPress notifications go through WordPress email by default. Slack integration requires the PublishPress Pro suite’s notification system, which can send notifications to Slack channels via webhook. Configure the Slack webhook URL in PublishPress → Notifications → [notification] → Channels → Slack. Team members receive content workflow notifications directly in the configured Slack channel, reducing email overhead for active editorial teams.

Yes, that can happen, especially on older sites with many plugins. This usually happens when the plugin, theme, and add-ons are updated out of sequence. In most cases, testing on staging catches the issue before it reaches the live site. From experience, backups and changelog reviews save a lot of cleanup time.

Start by checking whether another plugin already does the same job. In most cases, overlap is what creates avoidable conflicts and performance issues. A common issue is installing a plugin because it looks convenient without checking the stack first. From experience, a short compatibility review avoids most of the pain later.