Ghost stories
My favorite sites on the platform.
I just posted a new article on Medium about my decision to host my newsletter about Berlin on Substack. I posted there--and not on Substack--because I write about writing on Medium and here. I only write about Berlin and Germany on Alte Frau - New Life.
If you're interested, you can check it out at the link below.
(Note: If you want to just skip to my list already, you can click here. I don't mind.)
Cathi Harris
See this cool embed link to an outside website? Yeah, you don't get that on Substack.
What I left out of that conversation, is why I still host my personal website on Ghost.
For writers and journalists, I really feel that the Ghost platform has more tools that make linking and sharing information easier. It also allows more design customizations, so that I can present my work in a variety of ways to make it more accessible to readers.
Graphs, embed links, pull quotes, different bullet lists, and multiple font and heading options are all part of the native menus. That may sound like a bunch of design geeky nonsense, but it's not. For a non-designer like me, to be able to easily and quickly make my content look good and easy to read--no custom CSS required--is key.
On Substack, my options are much more limited. (But Substack is free. So, there you have the TL/DR on why my newsletter is on it.) I have some more options on Medium, but not as many as I do here.
I also like that I can include Recommendations for any publication or website. On Substack, I can only recommend or embed links to other Substacks.
The advantage Substack has over Ghost and other platforms like Beehiiv, is its name recognition. Substack has become synonymous with personal e-newsletters, much like blogs were in the early 2000s. And, the platform encourages writers to both discover other publications and interact with other writers on the native app.
Ghost has Explore but it doesn't have a native reader like Substack or Wordpress. I mostly read the sites I subscribe to in Feedly or in email.
I still use Feedly the old-fashioned way, by adding the links to the RSS feeds for different websites I want to follow.
On one hand, that's a good thing. I like that Ghost is more of a publishing platform and not a social medium. Substack often feels that way and, while it has its pros, it also can feel closed off and insular.
On the other, there's a lot of great writing flying under the radar now that Google has kind of screwed everything up with respect to find anything using search.
So I'm jumping off with my old-fashioned version of a link post to share the Ghost-hosted sites that I read and love and why.
My favorite reads
Benny Morris
Quillette is an Australian online magazine founded in 2015 by Claire Lehman. It focuses on "long-form analysis and cultural commentary." I have found their articles to be of consistently high quality, as well as challenging and thought-provoking, and include a variety of perspectives.
Casey Newton
Casey Newton's "news at the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy" is really an essential read for anyone who works in the areas of communication or content creation. He covers the latest news on FAANG and other big media companies and their impact on politics and the economy.
Taras, the author of Straphanger: Saving Ourselves and Our Cities from the Automobile, writes regularly about sustainable mobility, transit, motordom, cities, and alternatives to the car.
A German online publication by Sebastian Wilken dedicated to trains (Zug is the German word for train) and train travel, with stories and guides for journeys around the world by train.
These are currently my favorite Ghost stories. Do you have others? Leave a comment and let me know. And check out my Recommendations link for more good writing online.