Networked publishing, native analytics, and $100M earned by indie publishers

The next major version of Ghost has arrived, and our 6.0 release is packed full of more upgrades and improvements than you can shake a stick at.

If you're short on time, and you just want the highlights:

• Ghost publications are now connected with an open network. People can discover, follow, like and reply to your posts across Bluesky, Flipboard, Threads, Mastodon, WordPress, Ghost, and any other social web platform. Distribution is now built-in.
• We're introducing a native analytics suite for Ghost, giving you detailed insights into how your content performs across web traffic, newsletters, and member subscriptions - all in real-time, all from the same place you publish everyday.
• Collectively, publishers on Ghost have now earned over $100M in revenue to support their work. Indie media isn't just surviving, it's thriving.
• We've shipped thousands of improvements and updates since Ghost 5.0 that make the product more powerful than ever before.
• For developers: Ghost is moving to a new official Docker Compose env, and our production stack is now Ubuntu 24, Node 22, and MySQL8.

If you want to try any of these things (and the many other improvements) go ahead and sign up for a free trial on Ghost.org and see for yourself. It's live now.

Or, if you want all the details about everything that's new, keep reading!

When we announced Ghost 5.0 a few years ago, we were proud to share that Ghost's revenue had hit $4M – while publisher earnings had surpassed $10M. It felt great to have such a clear sign that our goal to create a sustainable business model for independent creators was succeeding.

Today, Ghost's annual revenue is over $8.5M while total publisher earnings on Ghost have now surpassed $100M.

While the dominant narrative in the media industry today is one of layoffs and cutbacks in a market saturated with clickbait and AI — Ghost publishers, whose revenue has grown dramatically in the past 3 years, are telling a different story.

These successful media businesses follow a simple model that's been around for a long time: They make money by directly serving readers, rather than advertisers.

After more than a decade of clickbait undermining media credibility, subscription-based publishers are discovering a simple truth: Producing high quality content that readers genuinely value is a far better business than chasing low quality page views for diminishing ad revenue.

And after more than a decade of watching questionable growth tactics from Big Tech™️ — Ghost itself proves that same simple truth when it comes to platforms. Unlike our venture-backed peers obsessed with growth at all costs, we're structured as a non-profit foundation that serves publishers directly with open source software.

We believe independent media cannot be beholden to proprietary tech companies, so Ghost publishers don't just "own their email list" — they own the entire software stack that underpins their business, end to end.

Not a centralized platform controlled by a single corporation, but open infrastructure that's shared by everyone.

That's the dream of the open web, and the driving force behind everything we do.

$100,000,000 later — we feel confident saying: It's working.

Grow faster, with the social web

Ghost is the home of your publication on the web, and it has always had support for multiple open distribution channels to deliver new posts to your readers.

• Ghost 1.0 started with publishing by web and RSS feeds
• Ghost 3.0 added support for publishing by API and webhooks
• Ghost 4.0 enabled publishing by email newsletter

In Ghost 6.0 we're introducing another new distribution channel: The social web. Now, millions of people can discover, follow, like and reply to your posts from any supported social web client - including Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, Flipboard, Ghost, WordPress, Surf, WriteFreely, and many more.

Just as people can visit your Ghost website in any browser, subscribe with any feed reader, or receive newsletters in any email client, they can now follow your Ghost publication from any social web client.

Unlike closed platforms with restrictive algorithms, open web protocols create a direct connection between you and your subscribers which you have full control over.

This direct relationship has been a major driver in the resurgence of email newsletters over the past few years. But, while email is a fantastic way of sending out updates, it’s a one way street. It doesn't, and can’t, have the network effects that are so powerful for generating growth, and reaching new people.

The social web turns your Ghost publication into a networked social profile that people can find, follow, like, reply, repost and interact with from anywhere —bringing network effects directly to decentralized publishing. Popular posts can be shared, re-posted, and discussed by millions of social web users.

What does that mean, in practice?

You now have a social web reader in admin to follow and read long-form content from other Ghost, WordPress or Flipboard publications. You can also follow and share short-form notes with people across Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon and others.

And, of course, others can discover and follow you.