Indiegraf is a 3-year old company that is having a positive impact for many WordPress publishers.
They’re a WordPress hosting platform for publishers, in a similar space to Newspack, Paywall Project, Lede, and others.
Introducing Indiegraf
Indiegraf don’t promote themselves much in the WordPress community, but they are active on social media and have a really good weekly newsletter. Give them a follow and you’ll see a steady stream of impressive WordPress publishers, including these Planet Detroit, Trenton Journal, Rio Grande Guardian, and The Buckeye Flame.
Indiegraf is led two sisters, Caitlin Havlak and Erin Millar. They previously founded The Discourse, a locally-focused publisher in British Columbia. You can get a sense for their work by browsing their 10 principles, including these:
- “The Discourse practises slow journalism: … Our editorial agenda isn’t set by breaking news or press releases. Instead, we dive deep into important issues that don’t fit neatly into the daily news cycle.”
- “The Discourse prioritizes impact over clicks: … Instead of trying to reach the largest audience possible to sell to advertisers, we focus on empowering people to effect change in their communities.”
The Discourse has consistently won awards for its journalism. They have a strong focus on using their newsletters to connect with readers multiple times per week.
Using their experience with The Discourse, Caitlin and Erin founded Indiegaf in 2020. They raised money, while remaining based in Vancouver. They have quickly grown to support over 100 publishers and a team of around 30 people.
Indiegraf is a comparable product to Newspack and PaywallProject, but focuses more on their newsletter platform. Their website pricing is directly based on the number of email subscribers.
Indiegraf offers three main products:
- Indie Tech: Their WordPress-based platform.
- Indie Audience: Strategic help for publishers to grow their audience.
- Indie Ads: They can run advertising programs for publishers.
This GIF gives you a quick preview of their platform, which uses a customized WordPress admin interface:
Back in 2021, Erin from Indiegraf gave this 4 minute introduction to IndieGraf while making a fundraising pitch:
Indiegraf summary
There’s a big need for platforms like Indiegraf. Publishers want someone to solve their tech problems at an affordable price.
WordPress is dominant in the publishing space and there’s a new generation of exciting young publishers.
Platforms such as Indiegraf, Newspack, Paywall Project, and Lede are not just platforms. They also offer their own communities of publishers, plus substantial consulting services to fill the tech and business needs of their customers.
