Information platform Beehiiv is expanding into new avenues of engagement by launching a feature called Community, which allows a creator’s subscribers to chat with each other. The company also launched a new AI Copilot that helps creators manage and grow their audience.
The updates come as Beehiiv positions itself as a creator platform beyond newsletters. In recent months, the company has launched podcasts, webinars and customizable paywalls. Some of these moves are already having positive results. The company said 50% of podcast users ported their shows from elsewhere, for example.
Beehiiv’s new Community tool will allow users to create a discussion forum within the platform. Today, creators often have a chat for 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 tiers for exclusive access to certain chat rooms and for chat moderation.
“The people watching your content have a common interest in what you’re creating, but they can’t communicate with each other. Whether that interest is about sports, the World Cup, or politics, being able to have a community where your audience can actually interact with each other is extremely valuable,” Beehiiv CEO Tyler Denk told TechCrunch.
The platform also introduces an additional monetization opportunity with programmatic advertising, which allows users to sell ad slots in their newsletters. They can earn money by selecting the ads that potentially offer the highest returns based on their audience, content and performance.
The company already has tools such as metered paywalls, paid trials and a sponsorship storefront to sell its own slots in packages. In addition, Beehiiv said publishers on the platform earn more than $1 million per month through its ad network.
Beehiiv is also launching a new AI assistant called Copilot, which can understand content, audience, subscribers and performance to give users tips on how to manage their newsletter and grow their audience. The assistant can analyze the performance of various newsletters and podcasts, plan campaigns for promotion and look for new opportunities to earn money.
The assistant is one of many AI efforts underway. Earlier this year, the company released a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, allowing users to connect their Beehiiv to other assistants like ChatGPT and Claude to ask questions and get information. It’s also working on better AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), which helps a newsletter get mentioned more often in AI assistant answers.
Along with these updates, the company is shipping a redesigned editor that lets users see editing and preview features side-by-side, helping them understand how the content they’re writing appears to readers.
Denk noted that in the next quarter, Beehiiv wants to spend time educating users about these tools and teaching them how top newsletters are using them to grow their publications.
The platform’s rivals are also evolving by launching new offerings. For example, Riverside released a newsletter publishing feature last month, and Substack released an integrated recording studio product in March.
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