Pick an AI writer, choose your stories, and HeyNews writes a full newsletter draft.
You'll need:
Generation runs in the background and typically takes 30-60 seconds. While it works, Compose shows the AI Writer, the locked input summary, and the draft generation being used.
You don't have to wait on the Compose page. If you navigate away while a draft is generating, HeyNews keeps working in the background, saves the result to your History, and shows a message when the draft is ready. Look for the "New" badge on the draft in History.
If you come back to Compose while generation is still running, a banner at the top shows you the job is in progress.
Use Automations in the sidebar to create drafts on a schedule. Pick a ready AI Writer, choose the issue day, lead time, time, timezone, and recurrence, then HeyNews will:
Automations never send or publish a newsletter. You still review the draft in Compose before copying, publishing, or sending it.
Each automation can set a minimum story count, maximum story count, date window, and whether used stories can be reused. HeyNews picks from the eligible stories available when the automation runs, instead of locking the draft to one fixed source list. If there are not enough matching stories, it skips the run and explains why instead of creating a weak draft. If the same setup keeps failing, HeyNews pauses the automation until you review it.
For a full walkthrough, see Automated Drafts.
Compose hides stories you've already used so your next issue starts with fresh options. If your search only matches stories you've used before, Compose shows a Show used stories button. Click it when you want to reuse or reference an older story.
If you send stories from Content Desk into Compose, they stay selected even if
they sit outside the current date or source filters. That makes it safer to
adjust filters without losing the stories you already picked.
Once generation finishes, you'll see:
Your story and source choices are locked after a draft is created. To use different inputs, start a new draft. That uses another draft generation from your plan.
The draft title is created automatically from your writer name and the current date (e.g., "Weekly Tech Roundup - Friday, March 21").
Edit the subject line, preview text, or draft copy directly. Changes stay on screen as you work, but they are not saved to History until you click Save changes.
Use Refine with AI to request changes in plain language:
The AI will revise the draft based on your instructions. Refinements count as unsaved changes until you save them.
Use Ideas for subject line options, or Suggest both to generate a new subject line and preview text together. Applying a suggestion creates unsaved changes, just like manual editing.
Each draft has a refinement limit based on your plan. Free trial and Hobbyist accounts get 5 AI refinements per draft. Starter gets 10, Pro gets 20, and Team includes unlimited revisions.
You'll see a running counter in the refinement panel so you know how many you've used. When you hit the limit on Hobbyist, Starter, or Pro, a prompt offers the Unlimited Revisions add-on ($50/month or $420/year), which lifts the cap on every draft you work on. Add it from Settings > Subscription > Add-ons, and refinement unlocks right away without a page refresh. Remove the add-on anytime from the same page.
After a draft is written, the draft workspace gives you:
Click Save changes to store your edits. A newly generated draft appears in History with a New badge. Once you save edits, it appears as Edited.
To use the issue in your email platform, open Copy, choose Copy full issue, and paste the content into beehiiv, Kit, Mailchimp, or wherever you send from. If you have unsaved edits, Copy uses the version currently on screen.
If you try to leave Compose with unsaved changes, HeyNews asks you to save or discard first.
Each generation attempt counts toward your limit, whether you save the result or not.
Each section of your AI writer can have its own story count. When you generate a newsletter or use Smart Select, HeyNews follows those counts: a "Top Stories" section set to 5 gets 5 stories, and a "Quick Hits" section set to 2 gets 2. Change these counts in your AI writer's section settings when you want more or less coverage in a section.