Ghost

For Observed

Creators (YouTubers, bloggers, podcasters, musicians, artists), publishers (writers, journalists, local news, new media) and businesses doing content marketing; developers for the source code.

Problem Observed

Platforms and algorithms decide who sees your work, and membership systems typically take 10-30% of revenue (paraphrase).

Promise Observed

Own your audience, brand and revenue: website, newsletters and paid memberships in one place with 0% payment fees.

Mission Published

Create the best open source tools for independent journalists and writers, and have a real impact on the future of online media (paraphrase).

Proof behind each pillar

• Own your audience. 0% payment fees: Ghost connects to the publisher's own Stripe account (Stripe ~2.9%).
• Own your audience. 404 Media 123K members; Tangle $281K MRR; Platformer 197K members; The Lever 149K members.
• A business, not just a newsletter. $100,000,000+ revenue earned each year by publications running on Ghost, with 0% payment fees.
• A business, not just a newsletter. 404 Media 123K members; Tangle $281K MRR; Platformer 197K members; The Lever 149K members.
• A business, not just a newsletter. Last week, 10,603 brand new publications got started with Ghost.
• Built to last. Non-profit foundation; constitution says it can never be bought or sold; 100% of revenue reinvested.
• Built to last. ARR $11,164,787; 30,504 active customers; 2.68% net churn (live public metrics).
• Built to last. 100,000,000+ Ghost installs to date.
• Built to last. 55,579 GitHub stars; 9B requests/month.

Story Observed

Founded in April 2013 by John O'Nolan and Hannah Wolfe, Ghost is a non-profit foundation that builds a free open source core and funds it with a managed service, Ghost(Pro). Its constitution says it can never be bought or sold, it reinvests all revenue, publishes live company metrics, and has been fully remote since 2013.

Values

Category. Open source publishing platform; 'the platform for independent publishers' Observed

Why them

1. Open source, and run by a non-profit foundation that can never be bought or sold. Observed
2. 0% payment fees via the publisher's own Stripe account. Observed
3. Newsletters, memberships, analytics and SEO built in, no plugins. Observed
4. All company metrics public, as a live feed. Observed

Instead of

Substack, beehiiv, WordPress, Medium and Patreon (the footer's comparison pages).Membership systems that take 10-30% of revenue.

Boilerplate Observed

Ghost is an open source, independent publishing platform run by a non-profit foundation. Professional publishers, creators and businesses use it to build a website, publish, send newsletters and sell paid subscriptions, keeping their audience, data and revenue with 0% payment fees.

Taglines

They never claim

• Use only numbers Ghost prints; the about-page metrics are a live feed, so date them. Our reading
• Never imply Ghost Foundation endorses, partners with or certifies a product or service. Published
• A modified version can't be called Ghost; say it is derived from Ghost's source code. Published

No messaging guide is published. ghost.org's pages lead with ownership and business: 'Turn your audience into a business.', 'Escape the algorithm', 'Your audience. Your data.', and back it with printed numbers and named publications.

Source: ghost.orgghost.org/creatorsghost.org/publishersghost.org/businessghost.org/aboutghost.org/pricing

• Write the mark exactly 'Ghost': never GHOST, GHost, Ghost-CMS, Ghost-platform or Ghost®Platform
• First or most prominent mention carries ® (Ghost®); the logo is Ghost Logo™
• Third-party pages using the mark carry the footer notice 'Ghost is a trademark of Ghost Foundation - https://ghost.org'
• Say “[X] for Ghost”, not “Ghost [X]” or “Ghost Hosting” or “Ghost Analytics” or “Ghost Toolkit”
• Say “Support for Ghost software”, not “Ghost Support”
• Never: MyGhost, GhostConnector, Ghost Cloud, Managed Ghost, Hosted Ghost, Fantasma, Geist, Esprit. Say a trailing descriptor ('for Ghost')
• Never translate 'Ghost' as a trademark; use the English mark in non-English content
• Independent publications about Ghost carry a non-affiliation disclaimer and no logo on the cover
• Never imply Ghost Foundation endorsement, partnership or official status
• British spelling
• Sentence case headlines
• Write as “we”, to “you”

PlainIndependentCandidWarm

No voice guide is published. The site writes short declarative sentences with full stops, in sentence case, as 'we' to 'you', British spelling on the about and docs pages, with occasional bluntness ('No investors. No bullshit.').

• Sentence case headlines with a full stop
• Write as 'we' to 'you'
• British spelling (organisation, colours)
• The mark is always 'Ghost', exact form

• Ghost publishes no voice guide. Tone words are our reading of ghost.org's own copy, labelled inferred.
• Short declarative lines with a full stop, even in headlines ('Turn your audience into a business.').
• Talks to the reader as 'you' and about the company as 'we'; benefits stated as ownership (your audience, your data, your revenue).
• Allows itself bluntness and humour: 'No investors. No bullshit.' (home) and 'drag & oops' (home).
• Proof by real numbers and named publications, including live public company metrics (about).
• British spelling on Ghost's own pages: 'organisation' (about), 'colours' (docs logos page).
• The trademark policy governs how anyone, Ghost included, writes the mark: exact form 'Ghost', never abbreviated, hyphenated or combined.

Source: ghost.orgghost.org/about

Source: ghost.orgghost.org/aboutghost.org/trademark/%20(s.5%20How%20to%20display%20our%20marks)

Three logo files: the dark logo (black orb plus 'ghost' wordmark, for light grounds), the orb alone, and the light logo (white orb and wordmark, shown on a Dark Grey panel). The wordmark is lowercase. All three are PNG downloads; no vector is published.

Source: docs.ghost.org/logosdocs.ghost.org/logos.mdghost.org/trademark/%20(s.5%20How%20to%20display%20our%20marks)

Five named colours: Ghost Green #30CF43 ($green), White #FFFFFF, Light Grey #CED4D9 ($lightgrey), Mid Grey #7C8B9A ($midgrey), Dark Grey #15171A ($darkgrey). Described as light backgrounds and tinted greys, accented with Ghost Green. The open-source Shade tokens hold the same values (green-500, gray-400, gray-700, black).

Not published: proportions; tints beyond the five (Shade's grey ramp is product UI); print values (CMYK, Pantone).

Source: docs.ghost.org/logos%20(Ghost%20colours)github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/blob/866b27ea9a8bdfc14ea1882d75845a2177d3855f/apps/shade/tailwind.theme.cssgithub.com/TryGhost/Ghost/blob/866b27ea9a8bdfc14ea1882d75845a2177d3855f/apps/shade/theme-variables.css

The guide names no typeface. ghost.org self-hosts Inter and Inter Display (rsms, SIL OFL 1.1) and sets headings in InterVariable Bold; Shade's --font-sans starts with Inter for both headings and body.

Not published: a type scale; a mono face for the brand.

Source: ghost.orggithub.com/TryGhost/Ghost/blob/866b27ea9a8bdfc14ea1882d75845a2177d3855f/apps/shade/tailwind.theme.css

The only published graphic element is the orb in the logo. Shade (product UI) adds soft layered shadows, small radii and a frosted-glass surface for the Admin sidebar.

Not published: patterns, textures, graphic devices.

Source: docs.ghost.org/logosghost.org/trademark/%20(s.5%20How%20to%20display%20our%20marks)github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/blob/866b27ea9a8bdfc14ea1882d75845a2177d3855f/apps/shade/theme-variables.css