In short
- A news site changes many times a day, so yesterday’s backup is already missing stories.
- Back up at least daily, keep two weeks of backups, and keep an off-server copy.
- Large media libraries restore on ordinary hosting thanks to chunked upload; Pro restores backups of any size.
Why news websites need more than a weekly backup
A news or magazine site is never finished. Reporters publish through the day, editors update breaking stories, and the homepage changes by the hour. Traffic spikes, heavy plugins for ads and analytics, and frequent updates all raise the chance of a breakage. And when a news site is down during a big story, readers go to another source and may not come back.
What to back up on a news website
- Posts and pages, including revisions, categories, tags and authors.
- The media library, often the largest part: photos, infographics and embedded files.
- Ad, SEO and analytics settings stored by plugins.
- Theme and layout settings for the homepage and category pages.
- User accounts for reporters and editors.
A backup schedule for a newsroom
| Publishing volume | Schedule | Keep |
|---|---|---|
| Dozens of stories a day | Daily, plus manual backups before updates | 14 backups |
| A few stories a day | Daily | 7 backups |
| Weekly magazine | Weekly, plus before each issue | 8 backups |
Pro Plus runs the schedule on its own and emails a download link after each backup, so a copy can leave the server every day.
How to set it up
Install Quick Restore
Add the free plugin from WordPress.org and make your first full-site backup.
Set your routine
Manual backups before changes; on Pro Plus, a schedule with retention and emailed download links.
Restore when needed
Choose a backup, let it validate, confirm. Links are rewritten if the domain changed.
Restoring without losing today's stories
A restore returns the site to the moment the backup was made. On a news site, stories published after that are not in it. Before restoring a live news site:
- Copy the text of any stories published since the last backup.
- Restore the backup, check the homepage and a few stories.
- Republish the saved stories.
If the site is badly broken but still partly working, consider restoring onto a staging copy first and moving only what you need.
Large media libraries on ordinary hosting
News sites build up big media libraries. Quick Restore uploads backups in small chunks, so a host’s upload limit does not block the restore. The free version restores backups up to 512 MB; Pro restores any size. Read restoring large WordPress backups.
Which Quick Restore plan fits a news website
Pro Plus for any active news site: daily scheduled backups, retention and emailed download links. Media groups with several titles can cover five sites with Max. Compare plans on Quick Restore pricing.
Frequently asked questions
At least daily, and manually before any plugin, theme or WordPress update.
Yes. Save recent stories first, restore, then republish them.
Yes. Chunked upload works around small upload limits; backups over 512 MB need Pro.
Yes. Restore the backup on the new server; links are rewritten if the domain changes.