Newsletter lists: Sending multiple newsletters from one publication

Newsletter Lists let you run multiple distinct newsletters, like a daily briefing, a weekly deep dive, and a product update, inside a single beehiiv publication. 

Instead of spinning up a separate publication for each newsletter, or stretching custom fields and segments to act as makeshift lists, you can create real lists that subscribers can join and leave individually, and send each post to just the subscribers on the list it belongs to.

• A newsletter list lives inside one publication: All of your lists share the same subscriber base, sender reputation, and billing. A subscriber on three of your lists still counts as one subscriber on your plan.
• Lists are subscriber-facing: The name and description you give a list are shown to readers in the preference center, so write them with your audience in mind.
• One post goes to one list: Each post is either sent to everyone (Global) or scoped to a single newsletter list. You can still narrow further with segments inside that list.

If you publish more than one newsletter, you generally have two options in beehiiv.

• Your newsletters belong to the same brand and audience (for example, a news outlet with several topic newsletters).
• You want one combined subscriber list, one set of analytics, and a single bill, but don't need separate websites and teams.
• You want readers to opt in and out of individual newsletters without leaving your publication entirely.

• Your newsletters are truly distinct brands with separate audiences, websites, and teams.
• You need fully separate sending domains and settings for each newsletter.

From the left panel dashboard, go to Subscribers > Newsletter lists, then click on + New newsletter list. A guided setup walks you through naming the list, choosing who's on it, and connecting the places people sign up.

1. Add your Logo (optional). This replaces your publication logo for this list in particular. You can upload a new graphic, or use one from your media library. 
2. Enter a Name for the newsletter list. Subscribers will see this name in the recommendation network, and eventually in their preference center. 
3. Add a Description with details about your list and what your subscribers can expect. 
4. Decide whether to turn on Auto-subscribe new signups to this newsletter. When on, anyone who subscribes to your full publication is automatically added to this list.
5. Click on Next to move to the next step. 

Decide who should be on the list to start. You can always add more people later.

• All subscribers: add everyone currently in your publication. This is a good choice for a flagship or ‘master’ newsletter.
• Some subscribers: migrate subscribers who have a specific custom field or subscriber tag, or upload a CSV of the people you want to add for a manual option.
• None, I’ll add subscribers manually: create the list empty and add people later.

Once you’ve decided, click on Next to continue. 

If you chose Some subscribers in the last step, you’ll be asked to decide which custom field or subscriber tag you wish to import the subscribers from. 

1. Select between Custom field, Subscriber tag, or Upload manually. 

2. If you selected Custom field or Subscriber tag, choose the corresponding field or tag name. 

   Tech Note: For Custom fields, you can only choose fields with a true/false data type. Only subscribers where the field value is true will be added to the list.
3. (Optional) Sync subscriptions with this custom field/subscriber tag during transition: Toggling this on will sync the subscriptions to any changes to the custom field or subscriber tag. This helps prevent subscriber gaps when migrating to the newsletter list, and is a temporary option.  
   
   Once toggled on, decide how long you’re going to sync subscriptions. Use the dropdown menu to select how long you’ll sync your custom field or subscriber tag. 
   
   
   

If you migrated subscribers from an existing custom field or tag, beehiiv finds the places that still reference that source and offers to point them at your new list instead, so new signups land on the list automatically.

beehiiv can update these for you automatically. You’ll be asked to review the following that are connected to your account: 

• Subscribe forms.
• Automations.
• Subscriber preferences.
• Segments.

You'll need to update these yourself: 

• Any external integrations, for example API calls, Zapier, or a CMS plugin, that add subscribers using the old custom field or tag.
  
  You will be asked to check a box to confirm that you understand external integrations must be updated manually. 

When you’re done, click on Finish import to complete your setup. 

If you're moving readers onto lists from an existing setup, like a custom field, a tag, or several separate publications, these practices help you switch over without surprises.

• Start with a baseline list: Create a catch-all list (for example, ‘Announcements’ or your main newsletter) and turn on auto-subscribe. That way every new and existing subscriber lands on at least one list, and you have a channel for cross-newsletter announcements that still uses list-level unsubscribes.
• Move your entry points and your sends together: When you migrate off a custom field or tag, switch your subscribe forms, automations, preferences, and the audience on your posts at the same time. Migrating your signup points but continuing to send from the old custom field creates a confusing gap for readers.
• Update anything outside beehiiv before the transition window ends: During a migration, beehiiv can keep your old custom field or tag and the new list in sync for a limited time, so subscribes and unsubscribes keep flowing while you switch over. You can configure how long that sync window is, between 7 and 90 days, to fit the size of your migration. 
  
  Before the window closes, update any external systems that still write to the old field, such as API calls, Zapier workflows, and CMS or WordPress plugins, so they add people to the newsletter list instead.
• Make sure no one falls through the cracks: A subscriber added through the API without a list specified, when you have no auto-subscribe list set up, will only receive publication-wide sends, not list-specific ones. Keeping a default auto-subscribe list (see the first tip) prevents this.

Once you have a list, you choose its audience while building a post. 

1. Create or open a post and go to the Audience page of the post flow.
2. Use the dropdown under Email audience to select the list you’d like to send to. 
   
   
   
3. When you select a list, the recipient count and any segment filters automatically scope to that list's subscribers rather than your entire publication.
4. Finish building and send or schedule your post as usual.

On your Posts page, each post shows a badge for its newsletter list, and you can filter the list of posts by newsletter to find everything in a given track.

Newsletter lists give readers real control over what they receive, which protects your deliverability by keeping people subscribed to what they actually want.

• When a reader uses one-click Unsubscribe on a list-specific post, they're removed from that newsletter list only.
• When a reader unsubscribes from their last remaining list, it's treated the same as unsubscribing from the entire publication.

Newsletter lists plug into the rest of your beehiiv toolkit.

On a subscribe form, you can tie the form to one or more newsletter lists so new signups join the right list automatically. When a form offers more than one list, readers see checkboxes to pick which newsletters they want. When only one list is linked, the choice is made for them, and no extra selection appears.

When building automations, newsletter lists are available as:

• Triggers: start a workflow when someone is subscribed to or unsubscribed from a newsletter.
• Conditions: branch based on whether a subscriber is on a particular list.
• Actions: subscribe or unsubscribe the subscriber from a list.

Within segments, you can use a subscribed-to-newsletter attribute condition to build audiences based on list membership. You can also bulk-add the members of a segment to a newsletter list.

You can assign a newsletter list to a post template, so any post you create from that template is automatically scoped to that list. This is a helpful guardrail when different editors or teams each work from their own template; they start on the right audience without having to set it every time.

Open any subscriber from your Subscribers page to see the newsletter lists they're on, along with a history of when they joined and left each one. From here you can manually subscribe or unsubscribe them from individual lists. A subscriber's tier (free or paid) and overall status stay at the publication level and don't change based on which lists they're on. You can also filter your subscriber list by newsletter to see who's on each one.

When you offer a recommendation through the beehiiv Recommendations network, you can choose a newsletter list to add referred readers to, so people arrive on the right newsletter from the start. 

Newsletter lists are available through the beehiiv API, so you can create and manage lists, add or remove subscribers, and assign posts to a list from your own tools. See the beehiiv developer documentation for details.

Go to Subscribers > Newsletter lists at any time to see all of your lists with their subscriber and post counts. Open a list to manage it across tabs for Subscribers, Posts, Automations, Segments, Email preferences, and Subscribe forms. To change a list's details, open it and choose Edit newsletter list. You can also archive a list you're no longer using.

You can break your reporting down by newsletter list to see how each one performs.

• Filter your reports by list: In your Posts report and Managing your subscribers on beehiiv report, filter by newsletter list to see post performance and subscriber growth for one newsletter list instead of your whole publication.
• Export list membership: Subscriber exports include each subscriber's newsletter list memberships, and you can export the full membership of any single list from its detail page.
• Target by list in segments and automations: Use a subscribed-to-newsletter condition to build audiences or branch workflows on list membership (see Automations and Segments above).
• Filter by list-level engagement: In segments and automations, filter on how subscribers engage with a specific newsletter list, for example their last open or click on that list, so you can build per-newsletter re-engagement audiences and flows (like "hasn't opened the Daily Briefing in 90 days"). This is distinct from list membership: it's about how someone interacts with a given newsletter's emails, not just whether they're subscribed.