Ghost 6 theme for newsrooms
Well-documentedMeridian
A Ghost news theme that reads like a broadsheet, for Newsrooms & Magazines
Meridian is a premium Ghost news theme for newsrooms, magazines, and digital publishers. Built for editors running real desks: daily news, section archives, opinion columns, paywalled investigations. Compose a broadsheet-style homepage from nine editorial layouts, pick a masthead that fits your voice, convert readers with the built-in paywall, and let visitors control text size and dark mode. All from Ghost Admin, with no code or plugins.
Built by a Certified Ghost Expert
Step-by-step setup guides for editors
Lifetime updates included
14-day money-back guarantee
Current release
v1.7.0
Released June 2026
Requires Ghost 6.0+
Homepage rows
Up to 30, mix & repeat
Stack nine reusable layouts in any order. Repeat up to 30 times.
The Ghost CMS news theme for journalism, not personal blogs.
Meridian is a Ghost CMS theme for newsrooms, magazines, opinion sites, and independent journalists. The screen reads like a broadsheet: a strong masthead, a hero story flanked by supporting columns, predictable section rules, and typography that respects the reader. Whether you run a desk of writers or a single byline that carries its own weight, Meridian gives the work the editorial frame it deserves.
Daily news desks
Multi-writer newsrooms with section-driven homepages, breaking coverage, and deep archives.
Editorial magazines
Long-form features, weekly issues, columnists with a name above the masthead.
Solo journalism
Single-byline opinion sites and independent investigative writers. A dedicated mode strips byline repetition from cards without removing credit from the work.
Membership-funded reporting
Paywalled investigations, tiered access, conversion built into every page.
Not for: personal blogs, lifestyle journals, portfolios, or sites where the editorial frame would feel like overkill. Meridian is opinionated and journalistic. It expects reported work, whether one byline or twelve.
Nine newspaper-style homepage layouts. Compose the front page your way.
Pick from nine editorial layouts and stack them in any order. Maybe a feature package up top, two briefing rows for different desks, an opinion column, then a markets-style lead list. Each row is just a normal Ghost page, so anyone on your team can edit the homepage. Reuse the same layout as many times as you need. Tap any layout to view it full-size.
Feature Package
Cinematic hero with a supporting story stack. Use for: the lead investigation or the day's biggest story.
Feature Rail
Cinematic hero with a uniform rail of supporting stories beside it. Use for: a flagship desk where the lead leads and the rest read as equals.
Asymmetric Lead List
Lead post with a headline-list rail beside it. Use for: Markets, Politics, and other vertical desks where one story leads.
Briefing
Image-less digest cards in a tight grid. Use for: morning briefings, roundups, and overnight summaries.
Briefing Carousel
Horizontal scroll-snap deck of briefing cards. Use for: longer queues without growing the homepage.
Opinion Hedcut
Columnist cards with portrait and italic column title. Use for: the Opinion, Editorial, or Commentary desk.
Tag Columns
N parallel columns, one per public tag on the recipe page. Use for: a section index that mirrors your navigation.
Standard Grid
Three-up paginated carousel of image-top cards. Use for: general news, features, or anything that doesn't fit one of the seven specialized layouts.
Wide Grid
Four-up paginated carousel of image-top cards. Use for: high-volume desks where four across reads better than three on a wide screen.
Easy to set up from Ghost Admin. No code, no plugins, no template edits. Each row is a normal Ghost page. Pick a layout, name your section, hit publish. Reuse the same layout as many times as you want; three briefing rows for three different desks is a normal setup. Up to 30 rows render on the homepage by default. See the homepage sections guide →
Two masthead styles. Choose how the front page carries its weight.
A newspaper's voice begins at the masthead. Meridian ships two, both wired to the same navigation, search, reader controls, and member tools. Pick the one that fits your publication's posture, switch in Theme Settings, no rebuild required.
Editorial masthead
The default. A classic newsroom name plate with room for a tagline, full section navigation, and reader controls. For publications that want their identity front and centre.
Compact masthead · New
A slim single-row variant. Overflow navigation tucks into a More menu, the chrome breathes, and the story below it gets the room it deserves. Designed for publications that want the front page to lead with the news.
Switch between them in Theme Settings. No template changes, no rebuild. Both mastheads share the same navigation, search, member account menu, and dark mode controls. See the masthead settings guide →
Four paper palettes. Paired light and dark.
Pick a paper tone that fits your newsroom. Each preset ships a light-mode and dark-mode value designed together, so the personality of your chosen paper survives the colour-scheme switch instead of flattening into a generic grey.
Newsprint · Default
Warm off-white paper with classic ink. The signature newspaper look.
Mist
Cool, minimal, modern. A subtle blue-grey for tech and design publications.
Stone
Warm muted grey, magazine-feel. Sits between Newsprint and Press.
Press
Stark black and white, maximum contrast. The high-contrast option for bold publications.
Reader-controlled
Dark mode that respects the print.
Readers pick Light, Dark, or System from the masthead. Their choice persists between visits and syncs across tabs. An optional dark-mode logo swaps the wordmark cleanly when dark mode is active. Every combination meets WCAG AAA body-text contrast.
A complete editorial workflow, in one theme.
Six newsroom moves wired into Ghost's existing primitives, so editors never touch templates. Curate, compose, navigate, break, convert, voice.
A new breaking news ticker, pinned to the site head.
Tag a story #breaking and it surfaces in the persistent strip above the masthead. Readers can pin it, pause it, or dismiss it. Goes silent when nothing warrants the alert.
Curate
Editor's Picks
Toggle Featured on any story and it surfaces in a scrollable strip at the top of the homepage. Newest first, auto-hidden when empty.
Setup guide →Compose
Homepage section rows
Each row on the front page is one Ghost page. Pick a layout, name your section, hit publish. Reuse a layout for as many desks as you run.
Setup guide →Navigate · New
Section topic hubs
A standalone Sections page that turns your tag taxonomy into navigable topic hubs. Each carries the section name, a short description, and the most recent stories. Built for readers who navigate by topic.
Setup guide →Break · New
Breaking news ticker
A persistent strip at the site head fed by stories tagged #breaking. Pin, pause, dismiss. Turn the ticker off in Theme Settings when nothing warrants the alert.
Convert
Membership CTA band
A full-bleed band above the footer on every page. Edit it like any Ghost page. It leads with free signup before paid tiers are connected, then picks up your pricing automatically once they are.
Setup guide →Voice
Editor's note
A short italic note in the editor's voice, in a dedicated slot on the homepage. Edit it like any Ghost page.
Setup guide →Plus editorial finishes: drop caps for opening paragraphs, single-author mode for solo bylines, and legal page slots in the footer. See the editorial conventions guide →
Make it yours
Customize without a developer.
Every region of Meridian, every card, every section, carries a stable customization handle. Recolor a kicker, tighten card spacing, hide a comment count, swap one font weight for another. Drop the CSS into Code Injection from Ghost Admin, save, refresh. No build step, no template edits.
The handles are versioned and stay put between releases. Your customizations survive every Meridian update without you touching them again. For everything more involved, the full Handlebars and Tailwind source ships with every license.
For the full list of customization handles, see the documented guide. Common tweaks are copy-paste; no developer required. See the customization guide →
Reads like a broadsheet, on paper too
Every post is ready for the printed page.
Meridian is a print-editorial theme, and it means it. When a reader prints an article or saves it as a PDF, they do not get a screenshot of a web page. They get a clean, typeset document: black on white, justified serif text, the screen clutter stripped away. Readers can print straight from the article toolbar or use their browser's own print command, and it works on every post.
Cover page
A proper masthead
Each printout opens like a front page: your publication name, the section, the date, the headline, and the byline.
The body
Clean, typeset reading
Justified serif text, drop caps kept, sensible page breaks. Navigation, comments, share buttons, and sign-up prompts all drop away.
Every page
Headline and page numbers
The headline runs along the top of every page and the page count along the bottom, the way a printed publication should.
Colophon
A footer that credits the source
The last page notes where the article was printed from, the date it was printed, and your copyright line.
Translated, and paywall-aware. The cover page and colophon print in your publication's language, not just English. On members-only posts, the Print action only shows for readers who can see the full story, so no one prints a page of teaser text. Useful for archives, press clippings, classroom hand-outs, and readers who simply prefer paper. See the printing guide →
Lead with video, and keep it playing.
A tap-to-play hero at the top of the story, a corner mini-player that keeps the video alive as the reader moves between stories, and member-only videos that respect your paywall. Upload directly, embed from YouTube, or pull from Vimeo. The player only loads when a reader chooses to watch, so nothing slows the page until they want it.
Set up in a minute
Add your video to the post, choose a cover image, mark it as a video story. The whole setup, from the Ghost editor you already know.
Plays right in the story
The cover image becomes a tap-to-play poster, and the video plays right at the top of the article. No pop-ups, no new tabs.
Stays with the reader, story to story
Once a video is playing, it tucks into a small corner player as the reader carries on, and keeps playing as they move from one story to the next. They can watch and read at the same time, and close it whenever they like.
Spotted at a glance
A play badge appears on every video story across your site, so readers know there is something to watch before they click.
No surprises. Mark a post as a video story but leave the video out, and Meridian simply shows your cover image as usual. There is no broken state to worry about. See the video posts guide →
Built for the reader, not just the publisher.
Bookmarks that need no API key. Reader controls for text size and colour mode. Both persist between visits, both sync across tabs, neither asks the reader to sign up.
Local bookmarks
Save buttons on every post card. A dedicated bookmarks page. No login, no signup, saved right in the reader's browser. Readers commit when they decide, not when you ask.
Reader controls
Text size (Small / Default / Large) and Appearance (Light / Dark / System) in a masthead popover. Remembered between visits, synced across tabs.
A membership conversion path baked into every page.
Two member CTAs ship with Meridian. A full-bleed editorial band above the footer on every page, and a tier-aware box at the end of every article. Both editable without touching theme code.
Membership CTA band
Edit it like any Ghost page. Leads with free signup before paid tiers are connected, then picks up your pricing automatically once they are. Hides itself entirely for paid members.
Tier-aware post CTA
Logged-out readers get signup. Free members on paid posts get a tier-aware upgrade prompt. Paid members never see it; the box is hidden entirely.
One page, one switch. Publishing the membership-cta page turns the band on across your site; unpublishing it turns the band off, no theme setting required. The band leads with free signup before paid tiers are connected, then picks up your pricing automatically once they are. Paid members never see it. See the membership CTA guide →
Advertising, done properly
The most complete ad system in any Ghost theme.
Most Ghost themes leave ads to you and a code box. Meridian ships a full advertising system you run from Ghost Admin: drop in Google AdSense, sell your own banners, or do both. Every slot sits inside the editorial layout instead of fighting it.
Paying members never see an ad, and the ad scripts never load for them. Free readers help fund the work, subscribers get the clean read they paid for.
Native Google AdSense
Paste your publisher ID, done.
Add your AdSense publisher ID once and Meridian loads everything for you, Auto ads included. Prefer another network or Google Ad Manager? Paste its ad code into any slot. The page stays network-agnostic.
House ads
Sell your own banners, no code.
Running a direct deal or sponsorship? Upload a banner image, link it, publish. No network, no script, no cookie. Meridian even opens the link in a new tab and tags it as a paid link, the way search engines expect.
Six ready-made placements, plus as many homepage slots as you want.
Turn on a spot by creating a page. Skip the rest. Nothing renders where you have not placed an ad, so your layout never breaks or shows a blank gap.
Header bar
A sticky leaderboard at the very top, site-wide.
Homepage in-feed
Ad rows between homepage sections, as many as you want.
Section and author pages
Woven between the rows on archive pages.
In-article
At the top of a post, hidden from readers without access.
Post footer
At the end of a post, before the author card.
Mobile sticky footer
A dismissible bar pinned to the bottom on phones.
Desktop and mobile
A creative for each screen
Serve a wide banner on desktop and a purpose-built creative on phones. One ad, two images, with no shrinking a leaderboard down to a smudge.
Members
Subscribers read ad-free
Ads are hidden from paying members automatically, and the ad scripts never even download for them.
Search-safe links
Tagged the right way
Banner links open in a new tab and are marked as paid links automatically, so your ads never affect your own search ranking.
Network-friendly
True-size slots
Every slot renders at its real size and reserves its space, so ad networks never penalise a reduced unit and the page does not jump as ads load.
Privacy handled for the EU and the US. Static image banners set no cookies at all. For ad networks, Meridian emits a consent baseline for visitors in the EU, UK, and Switzerland so ad cookies wait for consent, and it works alongside Google's own consent message or your own. See the ads guide →
Built on solid ground
Standards your readers, and search engines, expect.
Accessible by default
WCAG AAA contrast across every palette, keyboard-friendly navigation throughout, reduced-motion respected. The mobile menu behaves like a proper dialog with focus management and Esc to close.
Self-hosted typefaces
Eleven editorial typefaces and JetBrains Mono, all self-hosted. No Google Fonts, no third-party trackers, no cookies the reader did not ask for. Only the fonts you pick are preloaded.
Twelve languages
German, French (Canada included), Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil included), Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Danish, and Norwegian Bokmål. Bylines, dates, pagination, buttons, error pages, and the printed cover page all translate. Add your own from the locale files.
Built on Ghost 6.0+
Compatible with the Ghost Source app, custom integrations, and the Content API. The full Handlebars source ships with every license. One purchase, lifetime updates.
From the builder
Built by a Certified Ghost Expert.
"Every Ghost theme I tried for news clients was a blog theme with a serif swap. Meridian is the one I wished existed when those briefs landed on my desk."Kasun Jayarathna · Builder · Certified Ghost Expert
Meridian is built by Kasun, a Certified Ghost Expert who works on Ghost CMS setup, migration, customization, and production publishing workflows. When you need help with the theme, you are dealing with someone who works in Ghost every day.
Installation help is available on request. Product issues and setup questions are handled by email.
Trust the builder
What clients say about working with Enova Studio
Meridian is built by Kasun Jayarathna, a Certified Ghost Expert who has shipped Ghost sites for newsrooms, magazines, and independent publishers around the world. These are quotes from clients who have hired Enova Studio for their own Ghost projects.
“Kasun is an award-winning Ghost web developer whose exceptional communication, flawless delivery, and commitment to exceeding expectations make him a dream to work with. He transforms ideas into stunning, high-performing websites.”
Kelli Law
thelimitlesslife.co
Trusted by independent publishers, journalists, and creators worldwide.
See the work in recent client projects.
Questions?
Which Ghost version does Meridian support?
package.json. Ghost itself will refuse to activate the theme on Ghost 5.x, so upgrade your Ghost installation first, then install Meridian.Do I need to know code?
Can I switch the masthead style?
Does Meridian support languages other than English?
Can I publish video posts?
Does Meridian support Google AdSense and display ads?
Will ads show to my paying members?
What happens when a reader prints an article?
What if the theme isn't right for me?
How do the homepage section rows work?
#home-* internal tags to pick the layout, then add the public tag whose name should appear as the section header. Its newest posts fill the row. Page publish date orders the rows on the homepage, up to 30 rows by default. Layouts are reusable: three briefing rows for three different desks, or two asymmetric lead lists for Markets and Politics. For navigating by topic outside the homepage, Meridian also ships a dedicated Sections template that turns your tags into standalone topic hubs.What does the license cover, including client work?
Can I modify the design?
Is Meridian a good Ghost theme for newsrooms?
How does Meridian compare to WordPress newspaper themes?
Is Meridian a good Substack alternative for newsrooms?
Why Meridian over WordPress, Substack, or a generic Ghost blog theme?
Newsrooms and magazines outgrow generic tools fast. Here's how Meridian compares to the three alternatives most editors weigh.
vs WordPress
From WordPress newspaper themes to a faster Ghost stack
WordPress newspaper themes are powerful but slow, plugin-dependent, and expensive to maintain. Meridian gives you the same broadsheet hierarchy on Ghost CMS, with no plugins, faster Core Web Vitals, and a built-in paywall instead of a $200/year membership plugin.
vs Substack
Own your newsroom: a Substack alternative for serious publications
Substack works for solo newsletter writers. Meridian gives newsrooms a real homepage, sections, archives, multi-author bylines, and a paywall, without Substack's 10% revenue cut and platform lock-in. Members live in your Ghost database, not theirs.
vs Generic Ghost themes
Built for desks, not blogs
Most Ghost themes are blog-shaped: one feed, recent posts on top. Meridian is newspaper-shaped: a section-driven homepage with up to 30 mix-and-match rows, two masthead styles, a breaking news ticker, topic hubs, opinion-led layouts, and editorial typography across eleven self-hosted typefaces. It is also the only Ghost theme with a built-in ad system: AdSense, house banners, and six placements, all run from Ghost Admin.
Ready to launch your newsroom with Meridian?
Get the full theme, source files, documentation, email support, and lifetime updates.
One-time payment · Lifetime updates · Single-site license · 14-day money-back guarantee
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