HeyNews connects to beehiiv so it can learn from your past issues and see which topics readers respond to.
When you connect beehiiv, HeyNews will:
This API-key connection only reads your publication data. It will never send emails, modify your subscribers, or change anything in your beehiiv account. The optional beehiiv publishing connection described below is separate and can create drafts only after you approve it.
Your beehiiv publication will now appear under Publishing platform.
After you connect beehiiv, HeyNews checks for updates in the background:
Unlike Kit (which is one account per connection), beehiiv supports multiple publications. Each beehiiv publication is a separate connection in HeyNews. Your first connection can use the HeyNews publication you already selected; additional active newsletters use separate publications. If you manage several beehiiv newsletters, you can connect each one individually.
When the selected HeyNews publication is still named My Publication, the first connection can copy the name from your beehiiv settings. If you already gave the HeyNews publication a name, connecting beehiiv keeps it. A new HeyNews publication created for another beehiiv newsletter uses that newsletter's name.
You can also connect beehiiv with OAuth from Connections & imports. This is separate from the API-key connection above: it lets HeyNews create post drafts but does not send them. After approval, choose which beehiiv publication belongs to the current HeyNews publication. If the connection has confirmed draft access, select Use for new provider drafts. You can change either choice later from the same connection card. Connecting or reconnecting another provider does not change the selected Sending Connection.
If you reconnect a different beehiiv account, HeyNews asks you to choose the publication again. Until a publication is selected, HeyNews will not create a draft in beehiiv.
If your account was already connected before Sending Connection selection was available, ask your Publication Owner or Admin to select Use for new provider drafts once. This restores the Draft action without removing your history.
Open a saved Draft in Draft Review and select Create draft in beehiiv. The action appears only when beehiiv is the selected, ready Sending Connection. Save any unsaved changes first. HeyNews copies the title, subject line, preview text, subtitle, and newsletter body into a beehiiv post draft. beehiiv shows the subtitle under the post title. If you leave Subtitle blank in Compose, HeyNews puts your preview text there instead, so the web version and the inbox say the same thing. It does not schedule or publish the post. If your beehiiv publication has sent an Issue before, the new Draft keeps the theme, byline, social settings, and footer from your most recent Issue. A publication with no sent Issue starts with beehiiv's default styling and may need one styling pass.
The new Draft does not carry over the thumbnail image from your last Issue, so add one in beehiiv if you want a picture. It replaces that Issue's preview text too. When HeyNews copies a sent Issue or updates the same beehiiv Draft in place, a blank Preview uses your Subtitle, or your title if Subtitle is blank too. On a publication with no sent Issue, a new copy starts with a blank preview when both fields are blank. That includes a replacement if your earlier copy was changed in beehiiv. If HeyNews finishes an interrupted copy later or updates that same copy in place, it uses your title. A Draft with neither field also has no subtitle.
Before it shows the Draft as ready, HeyNews reads it back from beehiiv and checks the subject, preview text, body, links, and image count. A blank Preview may come back blank or as your own subtitle or title. beehiiv re-hosts images under new addresses, so HeyNews counts them instead of comparing addresses. If the saved Draft has an unrelated preview, a link you did not add, or fewer images than you sent, Draft Review asks you to check it in beehiiv.
The Draft in beehiiv is a copy of your HeyNews Draft at that moment. Later edits in HeyNews don't change it on their own. To copy your latest edits, save the Draft and select Update draft in beehiiv. HeyNews checks the Draft in beehiiv first and updates that same Draft only if it hasn't changed there and hasn't been scheduled or sent. The Draft keeps its web address in beehiiv, even if you renamed it in HeyNews. You can change the address in beehiiv before you publish.
HeyNews never writes over work done in beehiiv. If the earlier Draft changed there, was scheduled or sent, or its content can't be compared, HeyNews leaves it as it is and creates a new unsent Draft with your latest edits. Draft Review says why and links to both Drafts so you can compare them. If beehiiv refuses to return the earlier Draft, HeyNews stops the update because that response doesn't prove the Draft was deleted. Check it in beehiiv, then try again or contact support. Opening beehiiv's editor may save the post even when you did not change its text. If you plan to update from HeyNews, use View beehiiv Draft to check the page first; open the editor when you are ready to finish the Draft there.
Updating and trying again stay available even after you switch your Publication to another sending platform. Both go to the beehiiv publication the Draft was created in, so a copy you already have never moves somewhere else. If you select a different beehiiv publication later, choose the original one again in Connections & imports before you update or retry this Draft. HeyNews won't update or retry it while another beehiiv publication is selected. Starting a first Draft in beehiiv is the one action that needs beehiiv selected as your Sending Connection.
When the Draft is ready, use the link in Draft Review to open it in beehiiv and finish the review there. If you manage more than one beehiiv publication, first switch beehiiv to the one the Draft was created in. Otherwise beehiiv shows the post list of whichever publication you have open instead of the Draft. beehiiv does not provide HeyNews with a way to delete a post draft. Deleting a Draft or an automation in HeyNews, or disconnecting beehiiv, leaves your beehiiv Drafts where they are. Remove any you don't need in beehiiv.
Sometimes beehiiv stops answering partway through, and HeyNews can't tell whether the draft was created. HeyNews won't try again on its own. Draft Review asks you to check your drafts in beehiiv, then tell it what you found:
If HeyNews couldn't reach beehiiv at all, nothing was created and Try again is there straight away. If you have since chosen a different Sending Connection, Draft Review can also offer Create draft in Kit or Create draft in beehiiv for the new one. It never offers that while HeyNews is still unsure whether the first draft exists.
If HeyNews can't verify a Provider Draft Copy, open the draft in beehiiv and review it. Then return to the saved HeyNews Draft and choose I reviewed it, create a new beehiiv draft. Publication Editors, Admins, and Owners can use this action.
HeyNews creates a new unsent draft beside the one you reviewed. It leaves the reviewed draft unchanged and shows links to both. Delete the earlier one in beehiiv if you no longer need it. HeyNews never deletes it for you, and deleting it first doesn't stop the new draft. Once it's deleted, its link in HeyNews won't open.
The reviewed draft keeps its web address while it exists, so beehiiv gives the new draft a different one. After you delete the reviewed draft, you can change the new draft's web address in beehiiv.
Save any HeyNews edits first. If the Draft can't be copied as it is, fix the problem and choose Try again. The reviewed draft still stays unchanged. If the beehiiv connection needs reconnecting, this action appears again after a Publication Owner or Admin reconnects it in Connections.
Stories HeyNews already found stay in your account, but HeyNews stops checking beehiiv for new posts.
If something's not working, email support@heynews.co.