CSS-Tricks has a new owner
- ID
- 39720
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 26 Oct 2026, 11:51 PM
- Fetched
- 27 Oct 2026, 4:58 AM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://css-tricks.com/css-tricks-has-a-new-owner/
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 3.5
- Created
- 27 Oct 2026, 4:58 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_coders
What happened
Geoff Graham, who has worked on CSS-Tricks for 12 years, is taking independent ownership of the site from DigitalOcean, which bought it from founder Chris Coyier in 2022 (Coyier founded it in 2007). Graham says he is making it his full-time job and plans to fund it through a return to pre-DigitalOcean-style ad packages (display ads, sponsored posts, newsletter sponsors), a new membership option, and a beginner HTML/CSS course. He also says editorial direction will tilt toward being more inclusive of people early in their front-end learning journey, versus the site's traditional advanced audience.
Why it matters
If CSS-Tricks is in your reference bookmarks or RSS, expect the mix to shift: a beginner HTML/CSS course, a paid membership, and heavier advertising are now the stated revenue plan, and the stated editorial goal is more entry-level front-end content. That means fewer of the deep, advanced CSS/JS articles the site was known for, and more beginner material plus sponsored placements — worth re-evaluating whether it stays your go-to source or becomes one of several.
Discussion angle
Independent technical media economics: Graham is betting on ads + membership + a beginner course rather than corporate ownership. Does that model actually work for niche dev publications, and what does it do to archive quality when a site pivots toward beginners to grow the audience?