There\u2019s a common narrative that publishers are leaving WordPress for Substack. Don\u2019t believe the hype. The Ankler is the case that runs the other way — and it\u2019s a case worth studying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With 15 newsletters and around $10m in annual revenue, The Ankler is one of Hollywood\u2019s most respected insider publications. In April 2026 it moved off Substack onto a fully owned and operated WordPress site, giving the business direct control over its platform, data, and reader experience. This is what happens when a publication outgrows a platform built for individual creators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This talk looks at what that transition actually took, and why it made sense at this stage of the company\u2019s growth. We migrated tens of thousands of posts and media files, with one all-or-nothing export that can hang for 28 hours, no images in the dump, and no comments, authors or SEO data at all. We reconstructed thousands of hand-placed paywall boundaries, and mapped a single Substack paid tier onto six Passport audiences, adopting Passport as the new paywall, membership, and newsletter infrastructure while it was still in beta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the transferable lessons go beyond migration mechanics; they also include how the site was designed. Instead of Figma, we built directly in the block theme we\u2019d chosen, selectively codifying designs into templates, patterns and a child theme, deciding in real time where flexibility mattered and where it introduced risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result is a publication with direct ownership of its content, subscriber data, revenue logic, and reader experience. This talk makes the case that for media companies serious about independence, WordPress isn\u2019t the platform people are leaving. It\u2019s the one they should be building on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s a common narrative that publishers are leaving WordPress for Substack. Don\u2019t believe the hype. The Ankler is the case that runs the other way — and it\u2019s a case worth studying. With 15 newsletters and around $10m in annual revenue, The Ankler is one of Hollywood\u2019s most respected insider publications. In April 2026 it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14218176,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_wcpt_session_time":1787002200,"_wcpt_session_duration":2700,"_wcpt_session_type":"session","_wcpt_session_slides":"","_wcpt_session_video":"","_wcpt_speaker_id":[6729],"footnotes":""},"session_track":[53],"session_category":[46],"class_list":["post-4479","wcb_session","type-wcb_session","status-publish","hentry","wcb_track-track-2a-ai","wcb_session_category-showcase"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgSBpQ-1af","session_date_time":{"date":"August 17, 2026","time":"2:30 pm"},"session_speakers":[{"id":"6729","slug":"nicola-catton","name":"Nicola Catton","link":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/speaker\/nicola-catton\/"}],"session_cats_rendered":"Showcase","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/4479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wcb_session"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/4479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7020,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/4479\/revisions\/7020"}],"speakers":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/6729"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wporg\/v1\/users\/bengreeley"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wcb_track","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/session_track?post=4479"},{"taxonomy":"wcb_session_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/session_category?post=4479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}