Automated drafts

Automations create newsletter drafts on a schedule. Use them for recurring issues like a Monday roundup or Friday digest.

Automated drafts are saved to History. HeyNews does not send or publish them for you.

What automations do

Each automation can:

  • Pick eligible stories with Smart Select
  • Write the draft with the AI Writer you choose
  • Create a subject line and preview text
  • Save the finished draft to History
  • Notify you when the draft is ready or when something needs attention

Creating an automation

  1. Go to Automations in the sidebar.
  2. Click New Automation.
  3. Choose a ready AI Writer.
  4. Set your issue day, draft lead time, time, timezone, and recurrence.
  5. Set the minimum and maximum number of stories.
  6. Choose how far back HeyNews should look for stories.
  7. Save the automation.

The schedule builder covers weekly and biweekly drafts. If you need more control, switch to Advanced and enter a weekly recurrence rule.

Story rules

Automations work best when your sources are bringing in fresh stories. You can control:

  • Minimum stories: the fewest stories needed before HeyNews writes the draft
  • Maximum stories: the most stories HeyNews should include
  • Date window: how far back HeyNews should look
  • Previously used stories: whether older stories can be reused

HeyNews picks from the eligible stories available when the automation runs. It does not lock the automation to one fixed source list. If there are not enough matching stories, it skips the run and tells you what needs attention instead of creating a weak draft.

Reviewing automated drafts

When an automation finishes, the draft appears in History with an Automated badge. New drafts also show a New badge.

Open the draft, review it, edit anything you want, then copy it into your email platform when it is ready.

Notifications

HeyNews can notify you by email and in the in-app notification inbox when:

  • An automated draft is ready
  • An automation needs more stories or a settings change

You can turn automated draft emails on or off from Settings > Notifications. In-app notifications still appear so you can see what happened later.

Pausing or editing an automation

From the Automations page, you can pause, resume, edit, run now, or delete an automation.

Pause an automation when you want to keep the setup but stop scheduled runs for a while. Delete it when you no longer need that schedule.