Marlowe
A warm, editorial Ghost theme for independent magazines and newsletters, with three homepage layouts.
// overview
About Marlowe
Marlowe is a warm, editorial theme for independent magazines and newsletters, with three homepage layouts in one theme: Magazine, Newsletter and Journal. Switch between them in the theme settings without touching code.
Who it is for
- You publish long essays or a weekly newsletter
- You want a warm, bookish look
- You want to switch homepage layouts without code
- You sell memberships or plan to
Probably not for you if
- You publish breaking news — see Gazette
- Your site is mainly photos — see Folio
- You run courses — see Syllabus
Pages and layouts
Page templates: Topics, Writers, Membership, Signin, Signup, Account.
Extra post layouts: Full cover.
Getting set up
- Homepage layout: choose Magazine, Newsletter or Journal in Settings → Design & branding → Homepage.
- Editor's picks: mark up to 4 posts as Featured (Magazine layout).
- Upload the theme zip in Ghost Admin → Settings → Design, then fill in the theme settings.
- Import the sample content if you want to start from the demo and replace it with your own posts.
What you download
- The theme, ready for Ghost 6.0 or later (marlowe_1.0.0)
- Documentation in HTML and PDF
- Sample content you can import into Ghost
- 12 months of updates and support from the people who built it
Requirements
A Ghost 6 site: Ghost(Pro) on a plan that allows custom themes, or self-hosted Ghost. Memberships and paid tiers use Ghost's own members feature and its Stripe connection; the theme adds the pages and the paywall design. Demo photos are not included in the download.
// features
What's included
- Three homepage layouts in one theme: Magazine, Newsletter and Journal
- Magazine layout with a lead story and an Editor's picks column of featured posts
- Newsletter layout with a big signup hero and a line of social proof
- Journal layout: a calm, text-first list of essays
- Full-cover post template: the feature image fills the screen behind the title
- Long-form reading: Fraunces headings, Inter text, generous spacing and wide and full-width images
- Reading progress bar and an image lightbox for photos and galleries
- Topics and Writers page templates
- Related stories, share buttons and an author box on every post
- Membership page with tiers and a monthly/yearly switch
- Styled paywall with Paid and Members badges on cards
- Sign in, sign up and account pages
- Newsletter band on the homepage and archive pages
- Light, dark and system modes with an optional reader toggle
- Load more on the homepage, tags and authors
- Self-hosted fonts, fully translatable, 16 theme settings, no jQuery
Compatibility & tags
Changelog
v1.0.0 · 2026-09-30
- First release.
// faq
Questions about Marlowe
No. Marlowe is a theme for Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. It needs a Ghost 6 site, either on Ghost(Pro) with a plan that allows custom themes, or self-hosted Ghost.
No. You upload the zip in Ghost Admin and change colours, homepage sections and text in the theme settings (16 of them). The documentation walks through every setting. Custom CSS is optional.
Yes. The theme includes a membership page with your tiers and a monthly/yearly switch, a styled paywall for members-only and paid posts, and sign-in, sign-up and account pages. Payments run through Ghost's built-in Stripe connection, so you keep your subscribers and your revenue.
Yes. Every word the theme shows comes from a translation file, so you can translate it into your site's language.
The regular licence covers one website that you or your client run. The extended licence is for a single end product that you sell to others, for example a paid product where buyers receive a site built on the theme. If you are unsure which one you need, contact us before you buy.
Yes. Our Ghost theme install and setup service puts the theme on your Ghost site, sets your colours, navigation and homepage, connects memberships and imports your content. See the services page for the price.
Read more about Marlowe
How to Set Up Paid Memberships in Ghost with Stripe (2026 Guide)
Ghost has subscriptions built in, and it takes no cut of your revenue. Here is how to connect Stripe, design your tiers, lock the right posts and avoid the common mistakes.
Best Ghost Theme for a News Website in 2026: Sections, Live Blogs and Memberships
A news site is a front page, not a feed. Here is what a Ghost news theme must do, from section colours to live coverage, and how Gazette does it.
Ghost vs WordPress in 2026: Which Should You Choose for Your Blog or Publication?
WordPress can do almost anything. Ghost does publishing, newsletters and memberships, and does them very well. Here is how to choose between them.
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