Found out late last week that StudioPress along with several other companies merged together to form Copyblogger Media LLC, which is a new consolidated company led by Copyblogger founder, Brian Clark. Asides from themes and plugins, this new company will offer online education and a suite of software tools for WordPress.

Here’s a few excerpts from the official announcement posted on the StudioPress blog:

We’re excited to announce that StudioPress and several other companies are coming together to form Copyblogger Media LLC. This is a new consolidated company led by Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger.

I am one of the owners of this new company, while Nathan will remain as the lead developer of Genesis. We’re very excited about the development community which has surrounded Genesis, and there is so much to look forward to. Craig will continue to handle the business-side of StudioPress, while I will still remain an integral part of the entire project.

About Copyblogger Media, LLC

Joining Brian Clark and myself in this new venture as partners are Sean Jackson (creator of Scribe SEO), Tony Clark (co-creator of Teaching Sells, Third Tribe, and a new WordPress product called Premise), and Sonia Simone, Senior Editor of Copyblogger and co-founder of Third Tribe with Brian, Chris Brogan, and Darren Rowse.

As a full-fledged new media company, Copyblogger Media, LLC will have multiple lines of business, including online education and live events. But the thing that caught my attention was Brian’s vision for a suite of software tools, specifically for the WordPress space.

Read more about the Copyblogger Media LLC merger here.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this when I first found out about it but as I continued reading the post, I realized that this move would not only be beneficial for the groups involved but also for the WordPress community. Why? Because the people involved in this merger are not only good at what they do, but they also offer good quality products and services that comply to WordPress standards. So I really believe that this development is a win-win situation for both the company and the WordPress community. I’m looking forward to the products and services that this company will be coming up with and offering us in the near future.

If you’re currently a client of StudioPress, you have nothing to worry about this recent development. Brian Gardner said that it’s business as usual, he and his original team aren’t going away and that this merger would only bring better products, services, updates and support to current StudioPress clients.

Btw, for StudioPress affiliates like me, please take note that the StudioPress Affiliate Program is no longer with E-junkie and has switched over to ShareASale. You have until Sept 30th to switch to the new program. Old affiliate links not updated after that date will not receive credit for affiliate sales. Please refer to this post for further information.

What do you guys think of this merger? What products or services would you like to see Copyblogger Media LLC come up with and offer to the WordPress community? Please share your thoughts.

Now the cat is out of the bag as Brian Gardner officially announced earlier today that Revolution Themes would go open source, meaning all themes would be released under a GPL license and in compliance with WordPress standards.

What happens to the previously released Revolution themes?

As of 12:00 midnight, Friday October 31st, the themes that are currently available at the Revolution theme site will no longer be available. Ever. This was a decision that I made in order to protect the integrity of the current themes and the conditions under which they were released. Over the past year I have built a community of Revolution users, and to freely offer up those themes would be completely unfair to them. My community matters to me, and this is how I have chosen to handle current themes.

If you’re a current customer and Revolution theme user, you don’t have to be worried because:

I do want to point out, as promised to users who’ve previously purchased the current Revolution themes, that there will be a section in the new support forum where we will continue to support those themes.

On November 1st, the Revolution Theme site will be relaunched with completely new themes that will all be released under the GPL license, meaning anyone can download it for FREE. For those who need support, need more options or wish to have a customized version of the theme, these services/features are available for a certain fee.

In this project, Brian has teamed up with Jason Schuller author of WP Elements and creator of the Massive News, TV. Elements, Video Elements WordPress themes. Prior to the official announcement of this project, Brian and Jason met up with Matt Mullenweg and Toni Schneider of Auttomatic to discuss this project and to make sure that the project would be in compliance with the GPL license and WordPress standards. The new Revolution project would be developed and supported by Brian and Jason but they aren’t in any way partnering with WordPress or are being employed by Automattic.

Brian Gardner has started another revolution in the premium themes industry. The first time he did it was when he released the Revolution theme that “revolutionized” and paved the way for premium themes today. With this new Revolution project that will release open source premium themes, the Revolution themes would definitely have a wider market or user base and more WordPress users will have the opportunity to use premium themes especially those who don’t have the budget to purchase one. For folks like me who have know HTML/CSS or know how to tweak WordPress themes, this is definitely good news coz we can just download these themes and customize it ourselves.

It would be interesting to see/know what would be the reaction of current Revolution theme customers, other premium theme authors/vendors as well as the effect of this “revolution” on the WordPress premium theme industry.

If you’re a current Revolution user, what was your reaction when you first heard/read about this? To other WordPress users, what do you think about Revolution Themes going open source? Please share your thoughts and thanks for your time!

iThemes Premium WordPress Themes by Brian Gardner and Corey Miller have recently announced the launch of its WordPress Themes Club or as they call it the 2008 Theme Club. What they did was to convert what used to be their All-In-One Developer’s Package into a more appealing and more affordable theme club.

What do you get when you join iTheme’s 2008 Theme Club?

• 16 Themes for One Low Price, Plus NEW iThemes Created in 2008
• Multiple-Use Licenses – Compare this benefit to other theme clubs and you can easily see the value!
• Lifetime Theme Updates – Get series updates on each theme series included as long as the theme is offered
• Themes to Meet Almost Every Need – Get all the themes you need to start your freelance business off right
• Active, Professional Support – Get the help you need to customize your themes in our active support forums

WordPress Themes included:

• Essence – Our most popular, feature rich theme series
• iNews – For content rich sites
• Blogging Success – Get started blogging easily
• iCompany – Wide business and blog layout
• Grunge – A contemporary, dirty, yet glossy look
• Photo Gallery – Use as a web portfolio to show off your work
• Ecommerce – Build an online store for yourself and your clients
• Industrial – Traditional business website look
• Biz Card – For simple CMS websites
• Corporate – Web 2.0 professional website
• Brochure – For simple CMS websites
• Deep Order – Business Web 2.0
• Colonial Real Estate - For your real estate clients
• Digital Gallery
• Viz | Biz Portfolio – A feature-rich way to showcase your creative work

The total value of these 16 themes is over $1,300 and you can get it for a very low price of $399.95. And if you’re a previous iThemes customer you can upgrade to the 2008 Theme Club. All you need to do is present the receipt of your previous purchase and the amount will be deducted from the $399.95 package price.

I know not all bloggers have this kind of budget but if you ask me, this is one heck of a bargain especially if you’re into the web business. Not only do you get 16 good quality WordPress themes at a very low price, you also get multi-use licenses and best of all professional support from top notch WordPress theme designers.

To register or know more about this offer, visit the 2008 Theme club page over at iThemes Premium WordPress Themes.

Yesterday, Brian announced the release of his latest project called the Revolution Pro Media Theme. If you loved the original Revolution theme, I’m sure you’ll also love this theme or even more.

Some features of the Pro Media theme include:

• Featured homepage tabber area
• Featured photos from Flickr
• Featured YouTube video
• Other featured areas using custom fields
• Google AdSense integration in between posts and comments
• Section, Archive, Blog page templates

Screenshots:

Homepage

Blog Page

Options Page

The Revolution Pro Media Theme is available in two packages: the single use package which is available for $79.95 while the multiple use package is available for $199.95. Any theme or package purchase includes a lifetime access to any upgrades made to these themes.

For a limited time only, Brian is offering the the Revolution All-Inclusive theme package for just $299.95 and will be available until midnight (CST) Thursday, February 14th.

Preview or Purchase the Revolution Pro Media Theme for WordPress

My friend Brian Gardner one of the most popular WordPress theme designers around and author of the popular Revolution Premium WordPress themes together with Corey Miller, a journalist and web designer who himself has released more than 30 free WordPress themes recently launched iThemes, a premium WordPress themes site.

Here’s what they have to say about their new project and why they started it:

iThemes Media LLC seeks to offer the best-quality, premium WordPress themes for small businesses and bloggers.

Simply put, we love WordPress, the open source software that runs our designs. We believe WordPress is an outstanding content management system that can both put your business on the Web map … and help you easily maintain your blog and websites.

For the launch, they’ve released their first theme series called Essence which is designed to give small business websites a elegant and refined look. Basic features for each theme in this series include a static home page, 7 page layouts, 5 separate sidebar widgets, blog templates and text/graphic header options .

Screenshots:

Dark Essence

Blue Essence

Red Essence

Silver Essence

Golden Essence

The Single-Use Package is only $99.95, while a Multiple-Use Package is available for $249.95.

Aside from these themes, iThemes also provides add on services like installation and optimization, 1 hour customization and custom web design. To add to all that, I just found out that they also have several free WordPress video tutorials. Which I’m sure many WordPress users would find very helpful and useful. Great job guys and all the best!

For live demos and additional information or inquiries regarding their products/services, visit iThemes.