AI Writers are the voices HeyNews uses when it drafts your newsletter. Each one learns from your past issues and writes in that style.
An AI Writer captures your writing style. When you generate a newsletter, HeyNews uses the writer you picked to match your tone, structure, and vocabulary.
Think of it like hiring a ghostwriter who's already read everything you've published.
HeyNews builds the writer from your past issues, whether they come from beehiiv, Kit, or a connected newsletter archive. Those past issues can also help HeyNews find recurring sources from links you already shared. It can also learn from content you add through Sources.
During setup, each AI Writer learns your newsletter's usual sections. Each section has a story count, which sets the most Stories HeyNews should use in that part of the draft. Adjust the count when you want a section to feel tighter or more detailed. If the selected Stories do not support a section, the AI Writer leaves it out instead of filling it with unrelated material.
HeyNews builds your writer in the background. It usually takes a few minutes. While that happens, the dashboard shows that your writer is still being prepared.
Once your AI Writer is ready, it appears under Voice & past issues > AI Writers and in the Compose writer menu. Writers that are still being prepared stay hidden until they are usable.
Your subscription includes unlimited AI Writers. Create as many as you want for different newsletters, audiences, or writing styles.
Open any writer card to see:
The Voice Profile is read-only because it comes from Voice Training. Use Style Rules for preferences you want to set yourself, such as ending the intro with a call to action or keeping one section within a certain length. Each rule can apply to the whole issue or to a section you name.
When the AI Writer creates a draft, it also refers to a few past issues. If you added more than one source of past issues, HeyNews can include an older example from a source that recent issues would otherwise hide. These examples help it preserve details such as humour, paragraph rhythm, emoji habits, and sign-offs without copying old sentences or links.
You can add, edit, or remove up to 20 Style Rules on each AI Writer. Changes apply to the next draft you create, so you do not need to retrain the writer. Publication Viewers can read the rules but cannot change them. HeyNews manages the rules on shared AI Writers, so those are also read-only.
If you repeat Voice Training for the same writer, HeyNews keeps its Style Rules and Reusable Links when there is one clear match. When Voice Training creates a separate sibling writer, its settings start independently. Open the target AI Writer, choose Copy settings from another AI Writer, review the source and target, then confirm. HeyNews copies Style Rules and Reusable Links together and leaves the source unchanged. The source menu shows each Writer's Style Rule and Reusable Link counts so similarly named Writers are easier to tell apart. Only ready Writers from the same Publication can be used.
If someone else saves changes while you are editing, HeyNews keeps your draft open and shows the latest saved rules. Review both versions, then save again. When you repeat the same Draft Brief direction, use Open Style Rules below the brief to make it a lasting preference.
Drafts can only link to the stories you selected. That protection keeps AI Writers from inventing links, but it also blocks links you want in every issue, like a sign-off that points to your LinkedIn profile or your subscribe page.
Reusable Links is where you approve those standing links. Add up to 20 on each AI Writer, each with a web address and optional link text. The writer can then use them in drafts starting with the next one, without new Voice Training. The list belongs to the current AI Writer. If Voice Training creates a sibling, you can leave its settings independent or copy both Style Rules and Reusable Links from another AI Writer after reviewing the source and target.
A few things to know:
https://example.com still counts when a draft renders it as
https://example.com/. A different page on the same site is a different
link and needs its own approval.HeyNews also shows Suggested Reusable Links from two places. A link that keeps showing up across your past issues stays blocked until you add it. A link already approved in the AI Writer's Voice Profile can already appear in drafts; adding it makes that approval visible and easier to manage in the Reusable Links list. HeyNews leaves out technical addresses copied from email formatting, so the suggestions stay focused on links you might actually reuse.
Open Voice & past issues to see the history used by the selected publication. The Past issues section lists the sources your writer learned from, how many issues each source contributed, and where each source sits in the import and training cycle. Open AI Writers on the same page to manage the writers built from that history.
You'll see one of these states next to each source:
If your newsletter has more history than HeyNews originally imported, choose Add more past issues. You can request a CSV export, a public archive URL, or another platform's history, such as beehiiv, Kit, Substack, Ghost, or Mailchimp.
Every source must belong to the same newsletter as your current publication. You'll confirm that before submitting the request and can add a short note if you switched platforms or domains. Support reviews the request and imports approved issues into the same training set, so your existing AI Writers keep working while we add more history. Once training finishes, new AI Writers are ready to use automatically.