Publish on your terms

Empowering independent publishers with a platform that understands your needs

Screenshot of an article on the Defector website viewed on a smartphone. The article, titled 'Does Jon Stewart Matter?' features an image of Jon Stewart sitting on a couch during a television interview. The smartphone displays time and battery status at the top, and the phone is outlined with a jagged, glowing effect to emphasize it.

Success stories that speak volumes

With Lede’s help, Defector went from blog to brand.

“The Lede team have been critical partners for Defector since the very beginning of our journey. They deeply understand the technical and business needs of independent media operators like ourselves. As Defector grows and reaches new audiences in our fourth year, we continue to be excited about the Lede product roadmap for the website, CMS, and analytics platforms.

– Jasper Wang, Defector.com

Why choose Lede?

Solutions That Work For You

Lede offers a tightly integrated tech platform for publishers. Our tools are intuitive and responsive to your needs, giving you the freedom to do what you do best.

Integrated Paywall

Grow your business intelligently and sustainably with our fully integrated paywall that you can configure to your liking. You decide the pricing, messaging, and benefits of your subscriptions. All payments are powered securely by Stripe and fully white-labeled to your brand.

Advanced Analytics

Our enterprise-grade Beacon analytics system provides you with insights that go beyond basic pageview metrics. Understand your audience like never before and make data-driven decisions.

Flexibility & Control

With Lede, you’re in the driver’s seat. From incorporating branding elements to commenting features to social share buttons, you have the flexibility to choose the features and customer experiences that are right for your audience.

Join a community to grow with

When you join the Lede platform, you’re in great company. We’re building a community of independent publishers who write about a wide range of areas, from local news to in-depth topics. Whatever beat you cover, you’ll be right at home with Lede.

Lede publishers benefit from each other’s ideas, feature requests, and energy. Our unique approach delivers a single platform that’s purpose-built and laser focused on what the independent publisher community needs to connect with audiences and grow sustainably.

Visit Racket
Visit Streetsblog NYC
Visit Podcast Rex
Visit L.A. TACO
Visit Defector
Visit Appetito Magazine
Visit Aftermath
Visit The Lost Ogle
Visit Gazetteer San Francisco

Analytics that go beyond pageviews

Understand your audience like never before

Illustration of six diverse individuals labeled to represent different user types of a website. From left to right: a young man tagged as 'first time visitor', next to a woman with glasses labeled 'referral'. Next to them, a woman and a man with a beard, both untagged. On the right, a woman holding a smartphone labeled 'subscribed after reading an article delivered via newsletter' stands next to a smiling man. All are set against a purple abstract background.

First-Party Analytics

Our analytics are entirely in-house. We won’t invade your audience’s privacy or sell their data.

In-Depth Reporting

Learn about what kind of content converts users, what keeps them engaged, and how different cohorts of subscribers and would-be subscribers behave.

Data-Driven Insights

Benefit from the collective data of the Lede community.