{"id":14255,"date":"2026-08-17T20:08:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/?p=14255"},"modified":"2026-08-14T00:12:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:12:02","slug":"the-ankler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/the-ankler\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ankler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Ankler is Ankler Media&#8217;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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Presented at WordCamp US 2026: <a href=\"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/session\/own-your-audience-how-the-ankler-escaped-substack-and-took-back-control\/\">Own Your Audience: How The Ankler Outgrew Substack and Built An Independent Platform on WordPress<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ankler is Ankler Media&#8217;s independent flagship publication, covering the business of Hollywood and the lively intersection of entertainment, media, and technology.\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227158,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"screenshot-desktop":14257,"screenshot-mobile":14258,"feature-color":"#","domain":"theankler.com","author":"","country":"United States","theme":"Bespoke","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[214,346],"tags":[381,401,364],"flavor":[378],"class_list":["post-14255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-publication","tag-entertainment","tag-media","tag-technology","flavor-wordpress"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13077,"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/pew-research-center\/","url_meta":{"origin":14255,"position":0},"title":"Pew Research Center","author":"Nicholas Garofalo","date":"February 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that provides in-depth data and analysis on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the world. Through rigorous research, surveys, and reports, it delivers insights that help policymakers, journalists, and the public make informed decisions. With a commitment to accuracy and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Publication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Publication","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/category\/publication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/files\/2026\/01\/368354440-bd82c50f-df3b-494f-a262-35aae60ec8bb-scaled.png?resize=350%2C200#038;ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6948,"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/rolling-stone\/","url_meta":{"origin":14255,"position":1},"title":"Rolling Stone","author":"Steve Dufresne","date":"September 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Renowned for its content covering music, entertainment, pop culture, and even politics, Rolling Stone is not just another news publication; it\u2019s considered among the best in its class for journalism. The online version offers a clean and contemporary build to complement its legacy print publication. With entertainment at its core,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Featured&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Featured","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/category\/featured\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/files\/2023\/09\/rolling-stone-desktop-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200#038;ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12228,"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/the-atavist-magazine\/","url_meta":{"origin":14255,"position":2},"title":"The Atavist Magazine","author":"Nicholas Garofalo","date":"April 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Atavist Magazine\u00a0is a longform digital publication known for telling immersive, deeply reported nonfiction stories that blend narrative journalism with rich visuals and a cinematic sense of pacing. With a small, focused editorial team, Atavist curates standout stories that are as compelling in substance as they are in style\u2014often covering\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Featured&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Featured","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/category\/featured\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/files\/2025\/04\/magazine.atavist.com_.png?resize=350%2C200#038;ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":104,"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/playstationblog\/","url_meta":{"origin":14255,"position":3},"title":"PlayStation.Blog","author":"Steve Dufresne","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"PlayStation.Blog is the official blog for the PlayStation gaming console and its expansive library of games. It\u2019s a central content hub for fans and gaming insiders. It has lots of content ranging from insights into specific game titles to round-ups about monthly catalog releases on PlayStation Plus. It combines publication\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Publication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Publication","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/category\/publication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/files\/2008\/10\/blog.playstation.com_Screenshot-Tool.png?resize=350%2C200#038;ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6191,"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/new-york-post\/","url_meta":{"origin":14255,"position":4},"title":"New York Post","author":"Steve Dufresne","date":"September 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Post is one of the oldest continuously distributed newspapers in the United States. Servicing the New York community and beyond, it\u2019s known for breaking stories in an engaging and entertaining way.\u00a0 The New York Post\u2019s digital publication has an immense library of content. It\u2019s a high-traffic news\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Publication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Publication","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/category\/publication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/files\/2014\/09\/nypost.com_business_Screenshot-Tool-2.png?resize=350%2C200#038;ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":314,"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/techcrunch\/","url_meta":{"origin":14255,"position":5},"title":"TechCrunch","author":"Steve Dufresne","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"TechCrunch is a leading technology media company. It publishes a variety of coverage, including reviews of new gadgets and apps and breaking news about start-ups and the tech sector. The TechCrunch website has a functional layout and clean design that makes it enjoyable for visitors to browse and read. As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Publication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Publication","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/category\/publication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/files\/2008\/10\/techcrunch.com_Screenshot-Tool.png?resize=350%2C200#038;ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pmwwI-3HV","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/227158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14255"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14260,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14255\/revisions\/14260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14255"},{"taxonomy":"flavor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/flavor?post=14255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}