Newsletter platform Beehiiv is expanding into new avenues of engagement by launching a feature called Community, which lets subscribers of a creator chat with each other. The company also launched a new AI Copilot that helps creators manage and grow their audience.
The updates come as Beehiiv positions itself as a creator platform beyond newsletters. In the last few months, the company has launched podcasts, webinars, and customizable paywalls. Some of these moves are already showing positive results. The company said that 50% of podcast users migrated their shows from elsewhere, for instance.
Beehiiv’s new Community tool will allow users to spin up a discussion forum within the platform. Today, creators often have a chat for members on a separate Discord or Slack server or in Facebook groups, but Beehiiv wants to bring those chats back to its own platform. Here, creators can also create paid membership tiers for exclusive access to certain chatrooms and moderate conversations.
“People following your content have a shared interest in what you’re creating, but they can’t communicate with each other. Whether that interest is in sports, the World Cup, or politics, being able to have a community where your audience can actually engage with one another is super valuable,” Beehiiv CEO Tyler Denk told TechCrunch.
The platform is also introducing an additional revenue-generation opportunity with programmatic ads, which allow users to sell ad slots in their newsletters. They can earn money by choosing the ads that potentially offer the highest returns based on their audience, content, and performance.
The company already has tools like metered paywalls, paid trials, and a sponsorship storefront to sell their own slots in packages. Plus, Beehiiv said the publishers on the platform earn more than $1 million per month through their ad network.
Beehiiv is launching a new AI assistant called Copilot, as well, which can understand context like content, audience, subscribers, and performance to give users advice on how to manage their newsletter and grow their audience. The assistant can analyze the performance of various newsletters and podcasts, draft campaigns for outreach, and look for new money-making opportunities.
The assistant is one of several AI efforts underway. Earlier this year, the company launched a model context protocol (MCP) server, allowing users to connect their Beehiiv to other assistants like ChatGPT and Claude to ask questions and get insights. It’s also working on better AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), which helps a newsletter be cited in AI assistant answers more frequently.
Along with these updates, the company is shipping a redesigned editor that allows users to see editing and preview modes side by side, helping them to understand how the content they are writing would appear to readers.
Denk noted that in the coming quarter, Beehiiv wants to spend time educating users about these tools and teaching them about how top newsletters are using them to grow their publications.
The platform’s rivals are also evolving by launching new offerings. For instance, Riverside launched a newsletter publishing feature last month, and Substack launched a built-in recording studio product in March.
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