How to Schedule a Ghost Post or Newsletter

By Ahmad Ajmi October 5, 2026

A finished Ghost draft has two separate decisions: where it should appear and when it should go out. A scheduled web post, an email newsletter and a post sent to both destinations use the publishing controls in the editor. Choosing a future time does not decide the destination or audience for you.

This guide walks through those decisions before the final scheduling step. You need a draft you are allowed to publish; email delivery also needs a configured newsletter and subscribed recipients.

The screenshots use Aspire Themes’ Hanoi demo and an unpublished example draft. The example stops at final review; it was not scheduled or sent.

Check the Destination Before the Date

Start with the outcome you want:

Publish only: publish a post at its website URL without sending an email.
Email only: deliver a newsletter to its selected subscribers.
Publish and email: publish the post and send it to the selected newsletter audience.

Ghost supports these options in its publishing menu. Open the draft from Posts, then use Publish to inspect the choices. Read the destination summary rather than assuming that every post becomes an email.

Ghost publishing menu with Publish and email, Publish only and Email only options — The destination choices sit above the selected newsletter and its recipient count.

When you select Publish only, the recipient summary changes to Not sent as newsletter. That is a destination summary, not a scheduling error. The available email choices depend on the publication’s newsletter setup.

For email, check Settings → Membership → Newsletters first. Ghost’s newsletter setup guide explains enabling newsletter sending, creating a newsletter and selecting its subscribers. Each newsletter has its own subscriptions; a site’s total member count is not necessarily the recipient count for this send. Self-hosted sites also need their email delivery service configured.

Do not fix a missing email option by changing a theme. The theme controls the website; Ghost’s newsletter settings control the email. The website and email design guide explains that distinction.

Preview the Versions Your Readers Will Receive

Return to the editor and open Preview. Inspect the web version on desktop and mobile. If you are sending email, inspect the email preview too: website presentation does not establish how the newsletter will look in an inbox.

Ghost Preview toolbar above an unpublished Hanoi example, with Web, Email, device and Free member controls — Preview provides web and email choices, device controls and a reader-state selector.

Check the title, links, images and ending in each relevant version. For restricted content, use the available reader previews to check what a visitor or member can see. Post access and email recipients are separate decisions; use the post access guide if you need to confirm who can read the protected web content.

A preview is an inspection step. It does not schedule the draft or deliver a newsletter. Finish corrections before choosing a time, so the final review is of the content you intend to send.

Use the Publication’s Timezone

Open Settings and find Timezone under General settings. The current interface labels the control Site timezone. Check its selected value before planning a send for readers in another region.

The Hanoi demo uses UTC, and its scheduling panel also displays UTC beside the time. Your publication may use a different timezone. Treat the label on your own panel as the reference; do not assume the editor uses your computer’s local time.

For example, an editor working three hours ahead of UTC who wants a 09:00 local release would choose 06:00 on a UTC publication. That conversion is only valid when the offset is three hours on the release date. Check the date as well as the hour when working across timezones or daylight-saving changes.

Set a Future Time and Complete the Review

Go back to the draft and open Publish. Confirm the destination and, for email, the selected newsletter and recipients. Then:

Open the timing option, initially Right now.
Select Schedule for later.
Enter the future date and time, checking the displayed timezone.
Select Continue, final review and inspect the destination, audience and scheduled time again.
Complete the scheduling action only when that review matches your intention. The final button includes the chosen date; in this web-only example, it reads Publish post, on October 6th. Choose your own future date rather than copying the screenshot.

Ghost scheduling controls set to October 6, 2026 at 06:00 UTC, with Continue, final review — Schedule for later reveals a future date, a time and the publication’s UTC timezone.

Ghost final review stating that a post will be published on the site on October 6, 2026 at 06:00 — The final review repeats the future time and web destination before the scheduling action.

Changing the date in the first panel is not the final confirmation. Leaving that panel without completing scheduling leaves the publishing action unfinished.

Ghost’s publishing and scheduling documentation explains the native scheduling behavior.

Confirm the Scheduled State

After you complete scheduling, use Posts → Scheduled to locate the post and check its planned time. Ghost provides separate draft, scheduled and published views in its content management interface.

If the post remains a draft, reopen the publishing flow and check whether the final scheduling action was completed. If an email destination is unavailable, return to newsletter setup rather than repeatedly changing the date. At the planned time, verify the public URL for a web post and the delivery result for a newsletter. A scheduled state records the plan; it does not by itself prove that a later email arrived.