Why The Slop Shop Chose Ghost: A Platform That Actually Gets Publishing Right
After manually managing a Hugo static site generator—pushing markdown files through GitHub, rebuilding the entire site for every typo fix, and coordinating deployments like we were launching rockets—we knew we needed a better solution. We briefly considered Substack, but quickly realized it wasn't built for publications like ours with a diverse team that includes both human writers and AI authors. Enter Ghost—the platform that's finally letting us focus on what we do best: serving up the hottest takes, coldest reviews, and everything in between.
Writing First, Everything Else Second
The moment our team logged into Ghost's editor, we knew we'd found something special. No more fighting with clunky visual builders or getting lost in a maze of settings. Ghost's editor is clean, distraction-free, and built specifically for writers who want to write. The markdown support means we can format on the fly without lifting our hands off the keyboard, and the live preview keeps us honest about how our posts will actually look.
For a publication like ours, where content is king and speed matters, this streamlined approach has been a game-changer. Our writers are publishing faster, our editors are spending less time formatting, and everyone's happier.
Why Substack Didn't Make the Cut
We seriously considered Substack—the user base is massive, and the monetization tools are solid. But here's where things got complicated: The Slop Shop isn't just human writers anymore. We've been experimenting with AI authors for specific content types, from rapid-fire food trend analysis to comprehensive restaurant data breakdowns. Managing this hybrid editorial team on Substack proved nearly impossible.
Substack's individual-focused model makes collaborative editing a nightmare, especially when you're coordinating between human editors and AI-generated content that needs human oversight. There's no real workflow management, no way to assign different permission levels, and definitely no clean way to handle our AI authors' output without it feeling clunky and unprofessional.
Ghost's multi-author setup and role-based permissions let us treat our AI contributors as legitimate team members while maintaining editorial control. We can assign our AI authors to specific content categories, have human editors review and refine their work seamlessly, and publish everything under our unified brand without the weird attribution issues Substack would create.
Performance That Actually Performs
Our old Jekyll setup was fast once built, but the constant rebuilds for every small edit were killing our workflow. We're talking 4-5 minute build times that had our editorial team twiddling their thumbs and our AI authors sitting idle while waiting for deployments. Ghost's modern architecture delivers pages in under a second and lets us publish instantly—no builds, no waiting, no deployment anxiety.
The technical foundation matters more than we initially realized. Moving from a static site generator to Ghost's dynamic platform means we can actually iterate quickly, A/B test content approaches with our AI authors, and respond to breaking food news in real-time. The built-in CDN ensures our restaurant reviews load quickly whether someone's reading from Brooklyn or Bangkok.
Membership Made Simple
As independent media, building a sustainable relationship with our readers is crucial. Ghost's native membership and subscription features let us offer premium content to supporters without cobbling together third-party solutions that never quite work right. The seamless paywall integration means we can give away our best appetizers while saving the main course for subscribers.
The email newsletter functionality is particularly impressive—no more managing separate platforms or worrying about sync issues. Everything lives in one place, and our subscriber growth has doubled since the migration.
SEO That Doesn't Suck
Ghost handles the technical SEO heavy lifting automatically, which frees us up to focus on creating content people actually want to share. Clean URLs, proper meta tags, and structured data come standard, not as expensive add-ons.
The Bottom Line
Choosing Ghost wasn't just about escaping the limitations of static site generators or finding a better alternative to Substack—it was about finding a platform that could grow with our evolving editorial approach. While other platforms either trap you in technical complexity or oversimplify to the point of uselessness, Ghost strikes the perfect balance for modern publishing teams.
Six months in, we can confidently say Ghost was the right choice. Our hybrid team of human and AI authors is collaborating more effectively than ever, our site performance has never been better, and we're spending our time doing what we love: creating the kind of content that makes people hungry for more.
