What a daily product edition should include
What belongs on a homepage that publishes product stories once a day, and what turns that page into a logo grid nobody finishes.
What should a daily product edition show?
A dated index of product stories a person can open. Each row needs a title that says what the product is, a line on who it is for, and a link to the full page. The edition should leave off logo walls, unread counts, and anything that is not a story from that day.
The homepage is an index, not the story
A daily edition has two jobs. It tells a returning reader what was published today, and it gives a new reader a way into one story. It does not need to retell every story on the homepage. The story lives on its own URL. The homepage points at it.
That split is what keeps the page fast to scan. A title, a deck of one or two sentences, a category, and the day it went live. If a reader wants the argument, they open the story. If they do not, they have not been asked to scroll through it anyway.
Date the page in public
“Today” only means something if yesterday is still labeled yesterday. A product edition should show the day a story joined the index, in a timezone you state. Readers who check the page in the morning should see a stable set, not a feed that reshuffles every time someone pays for a pin.
On Lede Press, free stories in a day go live together at 08:00 UTC. The point is not the clock. The point is that the homepage is an edition with an edge. A page that updates continuously is a stream. A page that updates on a schedule is something a reader can finish.
One story, one product, one reason it is here
Each item in the edition should be about one product. Roundups have their own form — a shortlist with criteria — and they belong on a desk built for comparison. A daily edition item that tries to rank five tools in the deck will be too thin to trust and too long to scan.
The reason the story is in today’s index should be visible: it was published today. Not “trending,” not “staff pick,” unless you explain the rule. Opaque badges train readers to ignore the page. A date is a rule anyone can check.
What to leave off the index
Leave off a grid of logos with no sentences. Leave off follower counts, upvote tallies, and “hot” markers that change the order after the edition has closed. Leave off a second copy of the full article. Leave off a newsletter modal that covers the first story.
Also leave off stories that are not finished. A title with no page behind it is a broken index. If the writing is not ready, it is not in today’s edition. Tomorrow’s index is a better home than a placeholder.
Categories are for the next visit
The day’s index is for people who showed up today. Categories are for people who show up next week looking for a kind of product. File every story under a category a reader would type: support, billing, design tools — not “awesome” or “launch.”
The category link on the homepage row is how the edition stays useful after the day rolls over. A story that only exists on the day it was published is a post. A story that also lives in a category is a publication.
How many items is enough
Enough that the page looks like a day of work, and few enough that a reader can reach the bottom. Five to twenty stories is a range that still feels like an edition. A hundred logos is a directory, even if you publish them at the same hour.
If you have more submissions than the page can hold, do not shrink the writing to fit. Hold the extras for the next edition. A short index of real stories beats a long index of captions. Readers come back to a page they can finish.
Questions
Should the homepage include the full story?
No. The homepage is the index. The story has its own URL. The index needs a title, a short deck, the day, and a way to open the page.
How is an edition different from a product directory?
A directory is a catalog you filter. An edition is a day you can finish. Directories sort a pile. Editions publish a set and then leave it labeled with that day.
Do older stories disappear?
They should leave the day’s index and stay on their own URL, in their category. A story that vanishes after 24 hours was never a publication.
What belongs in the deck under each title?
Who the product is for and what job it does, in one or two sentences. Not a slogan, and not a list of integrations.