Going Places Media — Custom Ghost Theme & Publication Build
A fully custom Ghost theme for an independent travel journalism publication covering global stories through a decolonial lens — built for memberships, newsletters, and podcast discovery.
An independent media brand with a big mission — and a platform to match
Going Places Media is an independent travel journalism publication run by Yulia Denisyuk, a writer dedicated to telling global stories through a decolonial lens. The publication blends long-form editorial content, a weekly newsletter, a podcast series, and a curated city guides section — all under one roof.
Yulia needed more than an off-the-shelf Ghost theme. She needed a home that felt like her editorial voice: thoughtful, warm, and internationally curious — while being optimised for growing a paying membership base.
Building a publication that earns trust and converts readers into members
The Challenge
Going Places Media needed a content-first layout that could gracefully handle multiple content types — podcast episodes, newsletter archives, city guides, and long reads — without feeling cluttered. It also needed a membership onboarding flow that didn't interrupt the editorial experience.
The Solution
I built a fully custom Ghost theme using Ghost's native card architecture, creating distinct content sections for each pillar. The homepage was designed to showcase the most recent content across all four categories with editorial flair — paired with a lightweight, frictionless membership portal.
The Constraint
The budget required using Ghost's native theming system rather than a headless setup, so the theme needed to be both feature-rich and maintainable by a non-technical founder — no code updates needed after handoff.
The Outcome
A fully self-sufficient publication. Yulia can publish, manage her newsletter, run membership tiers, and update content entirely independently — with a site that looks nothing like an out-of-the-box Ghost install.
What was built
- Custom Ghost theme built from scratch — responsive, fast, and tailored to editorial multi-content layout
- Four distinct content sections: Podcast, Newsletter, Ideas, and City Guides — each with unique card designs
- Ghost Portal membership setup with free and paid tiers, welcome email sequence, and subscriber segmentation
- Homepage designed to serve both first-time visitors and loyal subscribers — with clear membership CTAs
- Podcast episode pages with embedded player and full transcript layout
- Newsletter archive integration — past editions are discoverable and browsable on the site
- Author bio pages and post tagging system for content discoverability
- Full site handoff with documentation so the founder can manage everything independently
A publication that has found its audience
What made this project work
Going Places Media is a great example of what Ghost can do when the theme is designed around the publication's actual content strategy — not the other way around. Rather than shaping the content to fit an existing template, we designed the theme to fit the way Yulia writes, edits, and publishes.
Ghost's native membership system made it straightforward to create a clean reader journey: discover content → subscribe to the newsletter → become a paying member. Every layout decision was made in service of that flow.
"Working with Hadi felt less like hiring a developer and more like collaborating with someone who genuinely understood what we were trying to build. The site captures exactly who we are — and it runs itself."Yulia Denisyuk Founder, Going Places Media