HeyNews connects to beehiiv so it can learn from your past issues and see which topics readers respond to.
What HeyNews does with your beehiiv data
When you connect beehiiv, HeyNews will:
Import your broadcast history and save the URLs you've shared with your readers so HeyNews can use them in future drafts.
Find more article links inside each broadcast (up to 10 per issue) and save them as stories HeyNews can use later.
Use links from your past broadcasts to help find recurring sources and RSS feeds for future story collection.
Pull broadcast performance data (open rates, click rates, unsubscribes) so HeyNews knows which topics your readers care about.
Notice which links get clicks so similar stories can rank higher in future suggestions.
This API-key connection only reads your publication data. It will never send emails, modify your subscribers, or change anything in your beehiiv account. The optional beehiiv publishing connection described below is separate and can create drafts only after you approve it.
How to connect
During onboarding
Choose beehiiv on the newsletter connection screen in onboarding
Paste your beehiiv API key
HeyNews checks it and shows your available publications
Select the publication you want to connect
Click Connect to finish
From HeyNews
Go to Connections & imports in the sidebar
Open Publishing platform and click Connect beehiiv
In the connection form, paste your beehiiv API key
Click Validate Key to check that it works
Select your publication from the dropdown
Click Connect
Your beehiiv publication will now appear under Publishing platform.
Getting your beehiiv API key
Log in to your beehiiv dashboard
Go to Settings > Integrations
Find the API section and copy your API key
Paste it into HeyNews
What happens after connecting
After you connect beehiiv, HeyNews checks for updates in the background:
Every 4 hours, HeyNews checks recent posts and saves article links as stories.
Every hour, HeyNews checks performance for posts that are at least 48 hours old.
Multi-publication support
Unlike Kit (which is one account per connection), beehiiv supports multiple publications. Each beehiiv publication is a separate connection in HeyNews. Your first connection can use the HeyNews publication you already selected; additional active newsletters use separate publications. If you manage several beehiiv newsletters, you can connect each one individually.
When the selected HeyNews publication is still named My Publication, the first connection can copy the name from your beehiiv settings. If you already gave the HeyNews publication a name, connecting beehiiv keeps it. A new HeyNews publication created for another beehiiv newsletter uses that newsletter's name.
Connecting beehiiv for draft publishing
You can also connect beehiiv with OAuth from Connections & imports. This is separate from the API-key connection above: it lets HeyNews create post drafts but does not send them. After approval, choose which beehiiv publication belongs to the current HeyNews publication. If the connection has confirmed draft access, select Use for new provider drafts. You can change either choice later from the same connection card. Connecting or reconnecting another provider does not change the selected Sending Connection.
If you reconnect a different beehiiv account, HeyNews asks you to choose the publication again. Until a publication is selected, HeyNews will not create a draft in beehiiv.
If your account was already connected before Sending Connection selection was available, ask your Publication Owner or Admin to select Use for new provider drafts once. This restores the Draft action without removing your history.
Creating a Draft in beehiiv
Open a saved Draft in Draft Review and select Create draft in beehiiv. The action appears only when beehiiv is the selected, ready Sending Connection. Save any unsaved changes first. HeyNews copies the title, subject line, preview text, subtitle, and newsletter body into a beehiiv post draft. beehiiv shows the subtitle under the post title. If you leave Subtitle blank in Compose, HeyNews puts your preview text there instead, so the web version and the inbox say the same thing. It does not schedule or publish the post. If your beehiiv publication has sent an Issue before, the new Draft keeps the theme, byline, social settings, and footer from your most recent Issue. A publication with no sent Issue starts with beehiiv's default styling and may need one styling pass.
The new Draft does not carry over the thumbnail image from that Issue, so add one in beehiiv if you want the post to have a picture. If your Draft has no subtitle and no preview text, the new Draft has no subtitle either, instead of the one from your last Issue. Before it shows the Draft as ready, HeyNews reads the saved Draft back out of beehiiv and checks the subject, preview text, body, links, and how many images came through. beehiiv sometimes answers with the title when the preview is blank, and HeyNews treats that as blank. It also re-hosts every image on its own servers under a new address, so HeyNews counts the images instead of comparing addresses. If the saved Draft has a preview you did not write, a link you did not add, or fewer images than you sent, Draft Review asks you to check it in beehiiv.
The Draft in beehiiv is a copy of your HeyNews Draft at that moment. Later edits in HeyNews don't change it on their own. To copy your latest edits, save the Draft and select Update draft in beehiiv. HeyNews checks the Draft in beehiiv first and updates that same Draft only if it hasn't changed there and hasn't been scheduled or sent. The Draft keeps its web address in beehiiv, even if you renamed it in HeyNews. You can change the address in beehiiv before you publish.
HeyNews never writes over work done in beehiiv. If the earlier Draft changed there, was scheduled or sent, or its content can't be compared, HeyNews leaves it as it is and creates a new unsent Draft with your latest edits. Draft Review says why and links to both Drafts so you can compare them. If beehiiv refuses to return the earlier Draft, HeyNews stops the update because that response doesn't prove the Draft was deleted. Check it in beehiiv, then try again or contact support. Opening beehiiv's editor may save the post even when you did not change its text. If you plan to update from HeyNews, use View beehiiv Draft to check the page first; open the editor when you are ready to finish the Draft there.
Updating and trying again stay available even after you switch your Publication to another sending platform. Both go to the beehiiv publication the Draft was created in, so a copy you already have never moves somewhere else. If you select a different beehiiv publication later, choose the original one again in Connections & imports before you update or retry this Draft. HeyNews won't update or retry it while another beehiiv publication is selected. Starting a first Draft in beehiiv is the one action that needs beehiiv selected as your Sending Connection.
When the Draft is ready, use the link in Draft Review to open it in beehiiv and finish the review there. beehiiv does not provide HeyNews with a way to delete a post draft. Deleting a Draft or an automation in HeyNews, or disconnecting beehiiv, leaves your beehiiv Drafts where they are. Remove any you don't need in beehiiv.
Sometimes beehiiv stops answering partway through, and HeyNews can't tell whether the draft was created. HeyNews won't try again on its own. Draft Review asks you to check your drafts in beehiiv, then tell it what you found:
It's in beehiiv: HeyNews won't create it again. Review that draft in beehiiv.
It's not in beehiiv: HeyNews lets you select Try again, once.
If HeyNews couldn't reach beehiiv at all, nothing was created and Try again is there straight away. If you have since chosen a different Sending Connection, Draft Review can also offer Create draft in Kit or Create draft in beehiiv for the new one. It never offers that while HeyNews is still unsure whether the first draft exists.
Disconnecting beehiiv
Go to Connections & imports in the sidebar
Find your beehiiv publication card
Click Remove
Confirm the removal
Stories HeyNews already found stay in your account, but HeyNews stops checking beehiiv for new posts.
Data and privacy
Your beehiiv API key is encrypted before being stored and never shown back in the app.
OAuth tokens for draft publishing are encrypted before storage and never shown back in the app.
The API-key connection only reads. The optional OAuth connection can create post drafts, but it cannot send emails, change subscribers, or delete drafts already created in beehiiv.
Need help?
If something's not working, email [email protected].
