I know some of you just wanna know what shipped. I put a list near the bottom of this post. You can also go to beehiiv's release video.
Everyone told you to start a newsletter. But you're not just in the newsletter business.
You don't have to be a creator or a media entrepreneur to feel the pain of having your content spread all across the internet. You're creating podcast interviews, videos, downloads, newsletters, blogs, talks, events and offers but it's not easy to turn it all into a coherent story and weave in ways to make money.
beehiiv has a solution, or at least the start of a solution. Their new Winter Release—out today—marks a shift away from "you need a newsletter" to "you should control your media brand."
The "newsletter businesses" aren't just newsletters anymore, so beehiiv doesn't want to be just a newsletter tool either. Major updates added in this release include the ability to pull your newsletter, podcast, and YouTube videos together on your website—with custom designed pages—and comprehensive analytics that rival what a tool like Fathom or Plausible can provide. They also shipped a digital product shop where you can sell coaching calls, digital downloads, and access to links (like a Notion template).
The key difference in beehiiv's execution from similar multi-channel efforts by Substack and Patreon is that beehiiv is leaning into integrations, rather than forcing you to bring everything into their platform. You don't have to move your podcast. They'll pull in your RSS feed. You don't have to upload the videos. They'll find them on your YouTube channel. beehiiv's tools are keeping your brand at the center, not theirs. They're also not touching your audience or your revenue.
Where's this shift coming from? In the last three years, the beehiiv team has seen their customers' fast growing newsletter businesses mature into full blown multi-media companies. Projects like Quinn Emmett's Important Not Important, Matt Brown's Extra Points, Davon Moseley's Royale Eats and every company Matt McGarry touches. Even creators like Colin and Samir from Press Publish, who started on a single channel (YouTube), but now have a newsletter, events, classes and a merch shop.
While beehiiv is integrating more into their product, they're not closing you off from the rest of the internet. Quinn Emmett of Important Not Important told me one thing his team really appreciates about their collaboration with beehiiv is how much they've developed the API: "We’re hitting [the API] tens of thousands of times a day from both sides, utilizing every part of the auth credentials, custom fields, segments, automations, and more, and beehiiv’s team have really made sure it works for us at every step of the way." For those who don't code, beehiiv's Zapier integration makes a lot of their API available through a user interface. Go check out Patreon's integration for comparison because it is TRAGIC.
That said, they are definitely making some tools obsolete for their customers. Most notably Podpage, which I'm a big fan of, is no longer needed if beehiiv can generate those episode pages on your site from your RSS feed. The new shop feature means you can finally ditch Gumroad for your digital downloads and simple coaching offers. And Linktree is fully replaceable with templates available in the web builder now.
You also won't need an external analytics provider anymore. beehiiv already has the most detailed newsletter analytics I've seen with granular source tracking. Their new web analytics enable you to have a much richer sense of what's getting searched, read and listened to on your site and where those visitors are coming from. The easy to scan design will be familiar to Fathom and Plausible users. And whether you want that data to make your own decisions or you need to provide it to partners, you'll be glad you can finally abandon Google Analytics. Good riddance!
It's safe to say beehiiv's founders always had this integrated direction in mind for their platform. Tyler Denk, Benjamin Hargett, and Jacob Hurd famously all came from newsletter turned multimedia venture: Morning Brew, which now includes podcasts, videos, events, a digital store and games. And they could still be a little early to it from what I've seen working with journalists and writers in the past two years, many of whom aren't ready to see themselves as business owners. The training wheels are off now and beehiiv is making it clear that if they have to choose between the "maybe I'll do a newsletter" crowd and the "I need more from your API" crowd, they're choosing the latter. It's time for indie media to get serious.
So, who's this direction most interesting for? I see two types of entrepreneurs who will benefit. The first is obviously any media producer who is expanding beyond a newsletter to either include other channels or other revenue streams, like the ones I mentioned above and brands like Garbage Day and Status, already hosted on beehiiv.
The second is online business owners who prioritize media as a marketing strategy. I'm thinking about an entrepreneur like Laura Sinclair, who runs This Mother Means Business (a podcast and event series) alongside a boutique social media marketing agency and a coaching business. Or Antonio Neves, who makes his primary income from speaking but also has a robust newsletter brand Man Morning, featuring a paid membership and lots of digital downloads.
Several of you told me this release announcement had you worried that you were going to have to move your newsletter elsewhere—as a former Squarespace web designer I know the feeling—but I don't think you're going to have problems, even if you don't want to use any of the new features. beehiiv still functions totally fine as a newsletter tool and the navigation is clean despite lots of fresh additions. The only people who lose out right now are people who were already overwhelmed by beehiiv.
Whether you're building a media business or just using media as marketing, it's worth paying attention to where beehiiv takes their product suite. Their team is smart. They get the digital media business. They stay close to their customers. And they're continuing to build in a way that lets creators retain singular control of their work, their revenue and their audience.
What's changed in beehiiv with the Winter Release
Watch the recording of their product announcements
Website Builder
- Automated podcast pages: Show your podcast episodes on your website by pulling in your RSS feed
- Built-in website analytics: Ditch Google Analytics because you can now get pageviews and sources straight from beehiiv in a view that looks a lot like Fathom or Plausible (which I think is a good thing)
- AI website builder: You can chat with the computer to build components for your site and you can upload a reference photo and have beehiiv create the component
- Link in bio templates: No more Linktrees. You can grab a template and load your links in for social media. The main bonus here is about analytics being connected to your site data.
- New website templates: Including new component styles
Newsletter System
- Dynamic content for your emails: Only show a piece of content to a certain reader based on detailed parameters you control that go beyond "free" and "paid"
- New automation analytics: Improved UI for email automations and richer data about how they're performing
- New email templates
Revenue Streams
- Digital product shop: Offer digital downloads, paid access to a link (like a Notion or Airtable template) or virtual coaching calls (calendar built in!)
- More ad opportunities in the ad network
- Ad network improvements to the UI for creators and for advertisers so it's easier to run campaigns
