Follow new capabilities, refinements and resolved issues across the Aeon News platform and add-ons. Each note explains the practical impact, availability and any next step for an existing newsroom.
These are customer-facing release notes. Sensitive implementation details are intentionally kept out; relevant operating guidance links directly to the public documentation.
Related premium stories can now follow one another when they share the same primary topic, creating a deliberate path through investigations and long-running coverage.
New
Topic-led premium continuation
A premium article can continue into another premium article from the same primary topic without mixing in the regular article stream.
Improved
Clearer separation
Regular continuous reading and standard topic recommendations keep premium stories out of unrelated reading paths.
Improved
Broader newsroom language support
Recent topic and administration labels are prepared consistently for English, Swedish and Finnish editorial environments.
Why it matters
Readers can move through a substantial body of reporting while the newsroom retains control over the format and editorial context.
For existing customers
Available for evaluation in the Theme 4.14 pilot line.
Recommended action
Review primary topics and test the intended article sequence before enabling the format on live investigations.
Aeon News can group related front-page articles into a compact news package based on their primary topic while preserving the publication's editorial hierarchy.
New
Automatic story packages
A lead article and compact follow-ups bring continuing coverage together under a clear topic heading.
New
Coverage returns when news develops
Publishing a new related article can move an active thread back into a prominent position.
Improved
Editorial overrides
Newsrooms can choose automatic, always-on or disabled behaviour per topic and exclude individual articles when needed.
Why it matters
Readers see the latest development together with its context, while editors avoid repeating several near-identical cards across the front page.
For existing customers
Available in Theme 4.13 for publishers using primary topics and the main front-page news column.
Recommended action
Review topic naming and ownership before enabling automatic grouping on a production front page.
The Reader Poll workflow now supports controlled creation, preview, activation and expiry while filtering out malformed AI-generated answer suggestions.
New
Controlled assisted authoring
Approved editorial and agent-supported workflows can prepare a poll as a draft without publishing it immediately.
Improved
Preview before activation
Editors can inspect the question and answers, then explicitly activate the poll and set an expiry when appropriate.
Fixed
Cleaner generated answers
Suggestions written as questions instead of answer choices are rejected and regenerated before editorial review.
Why it matters
AI can reduce routine work without taking publication control away from the newsroom or putting an unfinished question in front of readers.
For existing customers
Available as optional Add-ons 1.11.5. Agent-supported setup remains a consultation-led service.
Recommended action
Agree activation, expiry and review responsibility before connecting an assisted workflow.
Aeon News Proofreading can analyse the text currently visible in the editor, including unsaved article and selected custom-field changes, before anything is published.
New
Current-draft analysis
The review includes the active Classic or block-editor state and supported editorial fields instead of relying only on the last saved revision.
Improved
Safer suggestions
Structured responses and segment validation reject suggestions that cannot be tied safely to the material that was reviewed.
Fixed
Stable review controls
The progress indicator no longer moves the proofreading button label or its search icon while a review is running.
Why it matters
Editors can run a meaningful final check at the moment it matters, with less risk of applying a correction to the wrong field or an outdated version of the story.
For existing customers
Available in Proofreading 1.0.47. The add-on remains optional and requires a configured AI provider.
Recommended action
Update the add-on, confirm the selected provider and model, and test the fields used by your newsroom on staging.
The standalone WordPress add-on supports native comments and wpDiscuz, sending a moderation provider only stripped comment text with the article title or a short excerpt — never names, email addresses, IP addresses, or browser identifiers.
New
Assisted moderation queue
Clearly safe comments can move forward faster while uncertain material remains available for a moderator to decide.
Improved
Privacy and human control
Original comments are preserved, provider failures stay in review and authorised moderators can use a private Swedish translation when needed.
Why it matters
Only comments classified as safe with confidence of at least 90% can move forward automatically. Uncertain cases, provider failures, and malformed responses stay in the human review queue; no comment is automatically deleted or discarded, and the original is preserved. Authorised moderators can also use a private Swedish translation when helpful, never shown publicly.
For existing customers
Available as an optional standalone WordPress add-on. Implementation is configured around your comment system, moderation policy, provider privacy requirements, and hCaptcha setup.
Editor-led AI reader polls now respect the site language, generate more reliably, offer more balanced response choices and recover results robustly on cached pages.
Improved
More reliable poll suggestions
The generator follows a stricter response shape, honours the publication language and returns clearer errors when a provider is delayed.
New
Finnish reader interface
Reader-facing poll strings are available for Finnish publications alongside the existing language support.
Fixed
Stable voting on cached pages
Confirmed votes and results recover more reliably when the surrounding article page is served from cache.
Why it matters
Reader questions can stay useful and on-brand without adding avoidable work or uncertainty to the editorial day.
For existing customers
Available as optional Add-ons 1.11.3. Existing customers should update to benefit from the stronger generation and result handling.
Recommended action
Review the configured language and AI provider on staging, then test one article poll and one standalone poll.
The 4.10 series brings advanced archive search, renewed author profiles and archives, a Latest News Wire, a more flexible ticker, design presets, a Draft Previewer role and stronger localisation.
New
Richer discovery
Archive search, author profiles, the Latest News Wire and News Cycle give readers more routes into the publication's reporting.
Improved
Editorial presentation controls
Design presets, ticker choices and broader localisation make the platform easier to adapt without losing its newspaper structure.
Why it matters
Readers can find more of your reporting and understand who made it, while editors get clearer tools for presenting a living news product.
For existing customers
Available in the 4.10 series. Review the new editorial presentation options before enabling them in production.
Aeon Reels connects the article editor to the Reels production service so a newsroom can create a vertical video automatically on publish or trigger one manually from an existing story.
New
Per-article controls
Editors can choose whether a reel should be created, select configured destinations and override the default voice when a story needs a different treatment.
Improved
Visible production status
The editor shows the current job state, recent activity and the completed video link without forcing the newsroom into a separate production interface.
Why it matters
Short-form video can become part of the normal publishing routine instead of a separate manual production chain.
For existing customers
Aeon Reels is a live product. Destination availability depends on the publisher agreement, connected accounts and current platform APIs.
Recommended action
Contact Aeon Media Group before enabling new destinations or changing automation defaults.
The Translate and Migrate add-on transfers the article, featured media, selected editorial metadata and mapped publishing context to another WordPress publication while translating the material.
New
Complete article transfer
Titles, article copy, excerpts, media and supported editorial fields can move as one controlled publishing task.
Improved
Context-aware language workflow
Editors can use an AI-assisted translation route or a traditional translation provider and define publication-specific instructions and mappings.
Why it matters
A multilingual publisher can reuse reporting without rebuilding every article, image and taxonomy assignment by hand.
For existing customers
Available as an optional integration for publications with a defined source and destination WordPress setup.
Recommended action
Category, author, topic and language mappings must be reviewed before production migration.
Editors can assemble a vertical video slider from manual selections, selected channels or curated sources, with deferred video loading for a lighter page experience.
New
Curated video sources
Editors can save, reorder and remove selected vertical videos instead of depending only on an automatic channel feed.
Improved
Lighter playback
Video players load only after a reader chooses to play, while responsive scroll controls keep the carousel usable on touch and desktop.
Why it matters
It gives video a deliberate editorial home instead of making the front page depend on an unfiltered feed.
For existing customers
Available as an optional add-on. It can be configured around the channels and editorial selection process you already use.
