The Analytics page shows what is working in your newsletter: opens, clicks, send times, and the sources readers keep choosing.
Accessing analytics
Go to Analytics in the sidebar.
Time range
Use the dropdown at the top right to filter by:
- Last 7 days
- Last 30 days
- Last 90 days (default)
- Last 12 Months
The page updates when you change the range.
Learning status
The Learning status panel explains whether HeyNews has enough performance data to learn from your audience.
You may see:
- Connect newsletter analytics: connect beehiiv or Kit to start learning from published issues.
- Waiting for data: your platform is connected, and HeyNews has not pulled performance data for the selected range yet.
- Collecting signal: HeyNews has some performance data, but not enough to optimize confidently.
- Learning from your audience: HeyNews is using your audience data when it writes subject lines and scores stories.
- Sync needs attention: HeyNews could not fetch the latest data from your connected platform.
The panel also shows how many issues are tracked, how many are ready to use, whether subject-line learning is active, and how much click data HeyNews can connect to included stories.
If your connection has no data or the last check failed, click Check now to refresh the current publication. If HeyNews checked successfully a few minutes ago, it may ask you to wait before checking again. Failed checks can be retried right away.
Overview metrics
The dashboard shows:
- Newsletter issues in the selected period
- Active newsletter connections
- Average open rate
- Average click rate
- Trend arrows showing whether performance went up or down
Charts
Each chart uses a 0-100% scale, so the numbers are not stretched to look better than they are. Hover over any data point to see exact values.
- Recent performance: open and click rates side by side for each recent issue.
- Weekly trend: open and click rate over time, with average lines so you can tell whether you're above or below your own baseline.
- Best send times: a weekday-by-hour heatmap. Darker cells get higher open rates.
- Top performers: your best-performing issues.
The charts follow your selected time range and dark mode setting.
Top-performing content
The analytics page lists your best-performing newsletters and the domains that got the most clicks. Use this to see which topics and sources your readers actually care about.
Where does the data come from?
Analytics data comes from your connected newsletter platform, either beehiiv or Kit. HeyNews checks for new performance data in the background:
- beehiiv is checked every hour
- Kit is checked every 6 hours
Empty states
What you see when no data is available depends on how you're connected:
- Connected to beehiiv or Kit, no data yet: HeyNews is waiting for your first broadcast to get 48 hours old before pulling metrics. Come back in a couple of days.
- Connected through a public archive (Substack, Ghost, Mailchimp): public archives don't include open and click data. You'll see a form where you can request a direct connection for your platform. Submit it once, and we'll save your request.
- No connections yet: the page prompts you to connect a newsletter platform.
Data freshness
Performance data becomes available about 48 hours after a broadcast is sent. That delay gives readers time to open and click before HeyNews pulls the numbers. After that, metrics update on the regular schedule.
The dashboard uses the time range you select. If older issues are missing, switch to Last 12 Months.
Using analytics to improve
- If open rates drop, experiment with different subject lines or send times.
- Check click rates by domain. If readers consistently click links from certain sources, add more content from those sources.
- Use the trend arrows to spot whether things are getting better or worse month to month.