Automations create newsletter drafts on a schedule. Use them for recurring issues like a Monday roundup or Friday digest.

Automated drafts are saved to Issues. HeyNews does not send or publish them for you.

Each automation can:

Stories marked Summary only are left out. There is too little in one for an AI Writer to work from, so that call stays with you: add it by hand in Compose if you want it in an issue.

For an AI Writer created from an approved Newsletter Format, first select a ready Sending Connection. For beehiiv, connect draft publishing, choose its destination Publication, and select Use for new provider drafts. A ready Kit connection also meets this requirement, but you still copy Drafts into Kit. The same check applies when editing an automation or choosing Create next draft now. Importing past issues alone does not complete this step.

For schedules longer than one week, Starts anchors the cadence. For example, a two-week schedule that starts on Monday repeats from that week's selected Issue Days. The schedule continues until you pause or delete it.

HeyNews keeps the draft run and issue day separate. If you ask for a Friday issue one day early, the draft runs on Thursday but your AI Writer is told that the issue is for Friday. The calculation follows the timezone saved on the automation, including clock changes.

Automations work best when your sources are bringing in fresh stories. You can control:

Since last draft picks from stories published after this AI Writer's most recent draft. Every draft counts, whether you wrote it in Compose or an automation created it. Until the AI Writer has a first draft, HeyNews looks at the last 7 days instead.

A draft you write yourself moves that starting point too. If you create one shortly before a scheduled run, the run only has the stories published since then. When that's fewer than your minimum, HeyNews skips the run and tells you. If runs keep getting skipped, HeyNews pauses the automation. Choose a rolling window such as Last 7 days if you often write drafts by hand between runs.

Automations you created before these options existed pick stories the way they always did. An automation that looked back a set number of days keeps that window. If you'd checked Allow previously used stories, the automation now shows All available with the box unchecked. That matches what it did before: it ignored the date window but still skipped used stories. Check the box if you want it to reuse stories.

HeyNews picks from the eligible stories available when the automation runs. Standard automations do not lock drafts to one fixed source list. Managed Company Newsletter automations may stay tied to the sources approved during setup. If there are not enough matching stories, HeyNews skips the run and tells you what needs attention instead of creating a weak draft.

When an automation finishes, the draft appears in Issues with an Automated badge. New drafts also show a New badge.

Open the draft, review it, and edit anything you want. Copy it into any email platform when it is ready. If you connected beehiiv for draft publishing, save your changes and use Create draft in beehiiv when beehiiv is the selected, ready Sending Connection.

An automation can also copy each new draft into beehiiv. Open the automation, check Also create an unsent draft in beehiiv, and save. The option uses your Publication's Sending Connection, so Editors can turn it on once an Owner or Admin has chosen a ready one.

Scheduled runs and Create next draft now both follow this setting. Open Recent runs to see each copy's status, a link to the draft in beehiiv, or a link to the HeyNews draft when the copy needs a look. The draft itself shows the same status and the same explanation.

Managed Company Newsletter automations don't have this option.

HeyNews always saves your draft first, so a problem with the copy never costs you the draft.

HeyNews can notify you by email and in the in-app notification inbox when:

When an automation also creates a draft in beehiiv, HeyNews waits until that copy is done and sends one message. The in-app notification says whether the beehiiv draft is ready. When the copy needs attention, it says the HeyNews draft is safe in Issues and tells you what to do next.

A copy that needs attention also goes to the Publication's Owners and Admins, since they can fix a connection. If one connection problem affects several runs, they get one message about it. They're told again only if the problem comes back after a copy has worked. Every Editor can still see each run's status on the draft and in Recent runs.

You can turn automated draft emails on or off from Account settings > Notifications. In-app notifications still appear so you can see what happened later.

From the Automations page, you can pause, resume, edit, create the next draft now, or delete an automation. Create next draft now creates a draft for the next configured Issue Day without moving future dates.

Pause an automation when you want to keep the setup but stop scheduled runs for a while. Delete it when you no longer need that schedule.

HeyNews does not create missed Issue Days later. If a temporary service problem interrupts a draft that started on time, HeyNews retries every five minutes for up to 30 minutes. Only one draft can be active for an automation at a time. Pausing or deleting the automation cancels an unfinished retry.

If the automation also creates drafts in beehiiv, pausing it, deleting it, or turning that option off stops a copy that hasn't started yet. Recent runs shows the copy as cancelled, and you can still create one from the draft. A copy that has already started finishes normally. Drafts already in beehiiv stay there, because HeyNews never deletes them.