Title: The Ankler
Author: Nicholas Garofalo
Published: August 17, 2026
Last modified: August 14, 2026

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# The Ankler

[theankler.com](http://theankler.com)

The Ankler is Ankler Media’s independent flagship publication, covering the business
of Hollywood and the lively intersection of entertainment, media, and technology.
With a bold editorial voice and a growing family of newsletters, it has become a
trusted read for people who want to understand what’s really happening behind the
scenes of the industry. What makes The Ankler especially notable is its commitment
to independence, owning its content, its audience relationships, and the full reader
experience from start to finish.

To take that ownership even further, The Ankler moved 15 newsletters from Substack
to a fully owned WordPress site, migrating tens of thousands of posts and media 
files along the way. The team rebuilt its paywall boundaries and mapped a single
paid tier to six distinct Passport membership audiences, all while designing directly
in a block theme and thoughtfully codifying the results into templates, patterns,
and a bespoke child theme. It’s a wonderful example of WordPress serving as real
infrastructure for independent media, giving publishers direct control over their
content, subscriber data, revenue logic, and design, no matter how large and complex
their operation grows.

Presented at WordCamp US 2026: [Own Your Audience: How The Ankler Outgrew Substack and Built An Independent Platform on WordPress](https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/session/own-your-audience-how-the-ankler-escaped-substack-and-took-back-control/)

## More about this site

|  Country |  United States |  
|  Category |  [Publication](https://wordpress.org/showcase/category/publication/) |  
|  Flavor |  [WordPress](https://wordpress.org/showcase/flavor/wordpress/) |  
|  Published |  August 2026 |  
|  Site tags |  [Entertainment](https://wordpress.org/showcase/tag/entertainment/), [Media](https://wordpress.org/showcase/tag/media/), [Technology](https://wordpress.org/showcase/tag/technology/) |

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