Newsletter platform Beehiiv now lets subscribers chat with each other, adds artificial intelligence

Newsletter platform Bee yeast It’s expanding into new ways of sharing by launching a feature called Community, which lets subscribed creators chat with each other. The company also launched new AI Copilot software that helps creators manage and grow their audience.

The updates come as Beehiiv positions itself as a creative platform that goes beyond newsletters. In the past few months, the company launched Podcast, Webinars and customizable paywalls. Some of these moves are already showing positive results. The company said that 50% of podcast users, for example, transferred their shows from other places.

Beehiiv’s new community tool will allow users to create a discussion forum within the platform. Today, creators often chat to members on a separate Discord or Slack server or in Facebook groups, but Beehiiv wants to bring those chats back to its own platform. Here, creators can also create paid membership levels for exclusive access to specific chat rooms and to manage conversations.

“People who follow your content have a shared interest in what you’re creating, but they can’t connect with each other. Whether that interest is in sports, the World Cup, or politics, being able to have a community where your audience can actually interact with each other is incredibly valuable,” Tyler Denk, CEO of Beehiiv, told TechCrunch.

The platform also offers an additional revenue generation opportunity through programmatic advertising, which allows users to sell ad slots in their newsletters. They can make money by selecting ads that are likely to deliver the highest returns based on their audience, content, and performance.

The company already has tools like a paywall, paid trials, and a sponsorship storefront to sell its own slots in bundles. Additionally, Beehiiv said publishers on the platform earn more than $1 million a month through their ad network.

Beehiiv is also launching a new AI assistant called Copilot, which can understand context such as content, audience, subscribers and performance to give users advice on how to manage their newsletters and grow their audience. The assistant can analyze the performance of various newsletters and podcasts, craft awareness campaigns, and look for new money-making opportunities.

The assistant is one of many AI efforts underway. Earlier this year, the company launched a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, allowing users to connect their Beehiiv to other assistants like ChatGPT and Cloud to ask questions and get insights. It also improves AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), which helps the newsletter be cited in AI Assistant answers more frequently.

Along with these updates, the company is shipping a redesigned editor that allows users to see editing and preview modes side-by-side, helping them understand how the content they write will appear to readers.

Dink noted that in the next quarter, Beehiiv wants to spend time educating users about these tools and teaching them how to use their top newsletters to grow their posts.

The platform’s competitors are also evolving by launching new offers. For example, the company launched Riverside Newsletter feature published last monthand Substack was launched Recording studio producer built in March.