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Connect WordPress in Newsload

With the WordPress output location, you can publish Newsload posts directly to your own WordPress website. This works for your organization’s own posts and for posts from a subscribed channel if your organization has subscribed to a valid usage license for that channel.

Requirements​

  • You need access to your WordPress admin area.
  • Your WordPress user must be allowed to install, upload, and activate plugins.
  • Your website must run at least WordPress 6.2 and PHP 8.1. You can find the WordPress version in the admin area under Dashboard > Updates. You can find the PHP version under Tools > Site Health > Info > Server.
  • WordPress should be able to run scheduled tasks. This usually works automatically; see the WordPress scheduler section below.

If you cannot manage plugins yourself, send this guide to your website administrator or agency.

Install the WordPress plugin​

  1. Download the current plugin ZIP file: newsload-wp-plugin.zip
  2. In WordPress, open Plugins > Add New.
  3. Click Upload Plugin.
  4. Select the downloaded ZIP file and install it.
  5. Activate the plugin after installation.

The plugin updates automatically afterwards. You only need to download and install the ZIP file once. In the future, the plugin is planned to be available in the WordPress plugin directory and can then be installed like any other WordPress plugin.

Create the output location in Newsload​

  1. In Newsload, open My Organization > Output Locations.
  2. In the Websites section, select the WordPress output location.
  3. Click Add.
  4. Under Basic settings, give the output location a clear name that matches your website, for example Website example.com.

You can also open output locations directly: https://newsload.com/account/group/output-locations

Configure WordPress settings​

In the Advanced settings tab, define how Newsload sends posts to WordPress. This is where you find the import type, categories, and token for the WordPress plugin.

Create in WordPress as​

For normal publishing, these options are most relevant:

  • Post: Newsload creates content as regular WordPress posts. This is the right choice if the content should appear in your blog, magazine, archive, or regular post lists.
  • Post with Newsload fields: Newsload also creates WordPress posts, but adds extra Newsload fields. This is useful if your WordPress theme or website templates use that additional data. The technical documentation on Newsload fields in WordPress explains how to use these fields in templates or Elementor.

The Page option is intended for special cases where content should be created as WordPress pages instead of posts. For most websites, Post is the right choice.

Categories​

Under Categories, add the WordPress categories that should be available when publishing.

By default, you manage one category here. If posts should be able to appear in multiple WordPress categories, click Advanced mode and add the additional categories there. These categories can then be selected later when publishing the post.

  • Slug: The WordPress slug of the category, for example news, press, or events. If the category does not exist in WordPress yet, it can be created automatically.
  • Name: The label shown in Newsload. This name is only used for selection in Newsload and is not synchronized to WordPress.

Add all categories under which posts should later appear on your WordPress website.

Token and website URL​

The Wordpress Plugin Token is also shown in the Advanced settings tab. Copy it from Newsload with the copy button. Then open the Newsload plugin settings in WordPress and paste the token there.

Keep the token secret. Anyone with access to this token can connect your WordPress website to the output location. If the token is accidentally published or shared with the wrong person, rotate it in Newsload with the Refresh button. Afterwards, you must enter the new token again in the Newsload plugin on the corresponding WordPress website.

Once the token has been saved in the WordPress plugin, the Wordpress Page URL is set automatically in Newsload. It should then show the correct URL of your website, for example https://example.com. When this URL is correct, Newsload can notify your WordPress website directly about new or updated posts. This helps posts appear faster on the website.

Publish posts​

Once the plugin and output location are connected, you can select the new WordPress output location when creating or editing a post.

  1. Open or create a post in Newsload.
  2. Select your WordPress output location.
  3. Select the matching WordPress category if Newsload asks for it.
  4. Save the post.

Newsload then sends the post to WordPress. For posts from subscribed channels, this only works if your organization has subscribed to a matching usage license for that channel.

Additional information: Check the WordPress scheduler​

The Newsload plugin uses scheduled WordPress tasks so posts can be imported and updated reliably. For normal WordPress websites, you usually do not need to configure anything: WordPress uses WP-Cron and checks on page loads whether scheduled tasks are due. See the WordPress documentation on Cron.

If posts appear unusually late or updates do not arrive, you can check the scheduler:

  1. In WordPress, open Tools > Site Health.
  2. Check whether WordPress shows warnings about scheduled tasks, loopback requests, or cron.
  3. If warnings appear there, forward them to your website administrator or hosting provider.

WordPress itself points out that cron problems can appear under Tools > Site Health. See the official documentation for the Site Health screen and plugin and theme auto-updates.

If you have access to the server files, you can also check whether WP-Cron has been disabled in wp-config.php:

define( 'DISABLE_WP_CRON', true );

If this line is active, WordPress does not run WP-Cron on normal page loads. Remove the line or set it to false unless your host has configured a separate server cron job:

define( 'DISABLE_WP_CRON', false );

The official WordPress documentation describes DISABLE_WP_CRON in the wp-config.php guide. If WP-Cron is intentionally disabled, a real server cron job must call wp-cron.php regularly instead. WordPress describes this setup under Hooking WP-Cron Into the System Task Scheduler.

If WP-CLI is available on your server, your administrator can also test WP-Cron with this command:

wp cron test

The official reference is available under wp cron test.

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