The Format Generator helps you start a newsletter when you do not have past issues for Voice Training. You describe what you want to publish, then HeyNews researches the subject and builds a Newsletter Format for you to review.
This feature may not be available to every account while it is rolling out.
Choose Create a new newsletter during setup. The intake has three short pages with clear Back and Continue buttons. You will describe:
For each place you already publish, such as a blog or a podcast, you can add up to five links, a few words about it, or both. A description is the way to include work that has no link, like a printed column or a private community. Choose Other for anything the list doesn't cover, and add a link or a description so HeyNews knows what it is. If you haven't published anything yet, choose Nothing yet.
Writing samples are optional. You can add up to 10, and each one is a link or a piece of pasted text. For every sample, choose whose writing it is:
Add a note to say what HeyNews should take from a sample, such as the short openings or the way it explains numbers. Move up and Move down change the order. All your pasted samples together can hold up to 20,000 characters.
HeyNews doesn't open sample links, so the link and your note are all it sees. To share the words themselves, paste the text. Samples only shape how your newsletter reads. They never become sources for your stories.
If you saved samples before these labels existed, the summary marks them Needs a label. Choose Label samples and mark each one. Until you do, HeyNews uses them only as a general guide to style, never as your own writing.
The form uses your App Language. You choose the newsletter's writing language separately, so a Turkish interface can still produce an English newsletter. HeyNews saves your answers before moving to the next page, and you can return to finish later. The last page opens a summary where you can edit any section before payment.
If you already publish an email newsletter, choose I already have a newsletter above the form. HeyNews will take you to the connection flow, where it can learn from your archive through Voice Training.
If the credit-based Format offer is available to your new account, you can choose between a one-time purchase of 60 credits for $27 and a regular paid credit plan. The one-time purchase pays for this Format. You can add credits for review messages if you use the included messages and need more. It does not start a subscription or use your seven-day credit trial. If you are eligible, that trial begins when you approve the Demo Issue. A regular paid plan starts now, without a trial. Only the Publication Owner can buy either option. After payment for a regular paid plan is confirmed, HeyNews starts your Format automatically. For a one-time purchase, wait for payment confirmation, then choose Use 60 credits and create my newsletter format. The purchase does not start a Format until you choose that action.
If the screen says Confirming your payment, use Check again to check the same purchase. You can reload or return to this setup screen without losing your answers. If HeyNews cannot verify the payment yet, it keeps the purchase available and shows Contact support. Wait for a confirmed outcome before paying again. If payment did not open, Resume this purchase continues the existing purchase. When Choose a different option is available, HeyNews checks whether the existing purchase can be closed before showing payment choices again.
If you've paid for a credit plan before and intake asks you to restart it, your answers are saved. Go to Account settings > Subscription, restart a credit plan, then return to your intake. A one-time Format purchase alone does not require a credit-plan restart.
For accounts on the existing Format Fee offer, the terms below still apply.
Each Format Run costs $19 and includes one Format Re-run. If you are new to HeyNews, choose a monthly plan and review the 14-day trial terms during checkout. The checkout saves your card, but the trial does not start yet. After payment, HeyNews opens your Newsletter Format as it is being prepared. If confirmation takes longer, use Check payment again before paying again.
If you already have a paid subscription, you pay the same Format Fee without choosing another plan or starting another trial. The same applies when the HeyNews team has granted you a paid plan. A new account still needs to choose a plan and accept the trial terms.
HeyNews researches your subject, checks potential Sources, and prepares a Newsletter Format. It includes the planned Sections, Style Rules, visual styling, and notes explaining important choices. HeyNews doesn't suggest Reusable Links. You add the ones you want yourself.
The review lists the Sections, headlines, validated Sources, and Style Rules HeyNews prepared. Anything that still needs your attention appears as a flagged check.
The Format Specification card at the top describes the newsletter itself:
Sections lists the parts of each issue in the order they appear, top to bottom. Under each one, Example Headlines shows recent stories HeyNews fetched from your validated Sources. You can open an example, but you can't edit it. A Section with no example says No verified example yet. HeyNews won't make one up, and you can still approve the Newsletter Format.
Publication Styling sets the colors and fonts of your Newsletter Format. Its fields match the basic style settings in beehiiv:
#1A2B3C.A new Newsletter Format starts with a white page, dark gray text, Instrument Sans Bold headings, and Inter Regular paragraph text. Your brand book or website can change those starting choices.
If a color would make text hard to read, like dark text on a dark Primary color, HeyNews changes it when it prepares your Newsletter Format or when you save. Colors Adjusted for Readability names each changed color with its old and new value. The fields and the preview both show the new color.
The preview shows your Publication Styling inside HeyNews only. A font that isn't installed on your device uses a similar fallback in the preview; your chosen font stays saved. Approving your Newsletter Format doesn't change any settings in beehiiv or another sending platform. To use these colors and fonts in your emails, enter them in your sending platform's style settings.
A Newsletter Format created before this change keeps its colors and fonts. If it uses a font that isn't on the list, that font stays selected until you choose another one.
Review the proposal before you approve it. You can edit the available fields or give feedback. When you save your changes, HeyNews checks the Newsletter Format again. A flagged check you have fixed goes away, and a new one appears if an edit created a problem.
Each Section has a title, a Purpose that says what it gives readers, a story count, and a word range. You can change any of them. Use 1 to 15 stories and word counts from 0 to 2,200, with the minimum no higher than the maximum. If a number is outside those limits, the Section explains what to change before you can save. Fields pause while HeyNews saves your changes.
Use the up and down arrows beside a Section to move it. The Demo Issue and your AI Writer follow the order you save.
To add a Section, fill in Add a Section at the end of the list. It needs a title and a purpose. The story count starts at 1 and the word range at 100 to 250 words; change them if you like. A new Section shows No verified example yet, because examples only come from stories HeyNews fetched.
To remove a Section, choose Remove. If some Style Rules apply only to that Section, HeyNews asks what should happen to each one: move it to another Section or delete it. Cancel leaves the Section and its rules alone. HeyNews never turns one of those rules into a rule for all sections on its own.
A Newsletter Format needs at least one Section and can have up to 12. Renaming or moving a Section keeps its Style Rules with it. A Section from a Newsletter Format created before this change may have no purpose; you can add one or leave it empty.
The review chat can add, move, or remove a Section too. If you ask it to remove a Section that has its own Style Rules, tell it whether to move or delete each one. It won't turn them into rules for all sections.
Choose Save Format changes to keep your edits. If your Newsletter Format changed after you opened the page, for example in another browser tab, HeyNews doesn't save over that change. Reload the page to see the latest version, then make your change again.
Style Rules are the writing preferences your AI Writer follows in every issue. They appear as one list, and there's no required number. You can change the wording of any rule, delete any rule (even all of them), or add one under Add a Style Rule. A Newsletter Format can keep up to 50 rules.
A rule applies to all sections unless you pick one Section in Applies To. The list shows your current Section titles, and a rule stays with its Section if you rename or move it.
HeyNews doesn't write rules that name a particular Source, so your rules still make sense when your Sources change. Whatever your rules say, HeyNews still checks that stories come from your Sources and that every link is allowed.
A rule that repeats or contradicts another rule shows up as a flagged check. So does an older rule that points to a Section the Newsletter Format no longer has. That rule keeps the Section name it was saved with until you choose a Section or All sections.
Reusable Links are standing links that any issue can use, such as your
subscribe page or a social profile. The list starts empty. Choose Add
Reusable Link, enter a full web address that starts with http:// or
https://, and add link text if you want. Use the pencil next to a link to
change it, or the bin to remove it, then save your Format changes. You can add
up to 20 links, but very long web addresses fill the space sooner. If you run
out, HeyNews asks you to remove a link or shorten its link text.
Approving your Newsletter Format and its Demo Issue keeps your links as you left them. The review chat can't add or remove a link, so make link changes in the Reusable Links card. The Demo Issue only uses a link HeyNews can open while it writes; a link that doesn't open stays on your list. Once you approve the Demo Issue, your AI Writer starts with the same Reusable Links, and you can change them later on its page.
A Newsletter Format created before this change may already list links that HeyNews added. They stay until you remove them.
If any checks are still flagged when you approve, HeyNews asks you to confirm that you have read them. Select the acknowledgement checkbox before choosing Approve Newsletter Format. You do not need to resolve every flag to approve. If the checks change while you are reviewing, HeyNews shows the current checks and asks you to review and confirm them again.
If the proposal needs a fresh start, use the included Format Re-run. A Format Re-run replaces the current proposal, including Reusable Links you added, so copy anything you want to keep before you begin.
For eligible new customers, approving the Newsletter Format starts the 14-day trial on the plan selected at checkout.
After approval, HeyNews creates a Demo Issue from recent, checked Sources. The Demo Issue is a real Draft in Compose. Edit it as you would any other Draft, then approve it when the structure and writing feel right.
Your approved Newsletter Format and Demo Issue set up the Publication and AI Writer you will use for future Drafts. For your first trial, HeyNews fills in the Publication created at signup, so it fits within the trial's one Publication. Additional newsletter formats need room for another Publication on your plan. If your edits conflict with a measurable Style Rule, HeyNews follows the edit and adjusts the rule so the AI Writer does not receive contradictory instructions.
The final setup step is Connect your sending platform. Select a ready Sending Connection before creating more Drafts or turning on Draft Automation. For beehiiv, connect draft publishing, choose the destination Publication, and select Use for new provider drafts. A ready Kit connection also meets this setup requirement, but you still copy your finished Issue into Kit. Importing a public archive by itself does not complete delivery setup.
HeyNews creates and saves Drafts. You still review and send them from your publishing platform.