Publishing a newsletter

Choose who gets a post, set its email and web details, then publish it now or schedule it.

The steps

After writing a post on the Compose step, the editor's other steps set up how it goes out:

Audience: email, web or both, and who receives it.
Email: the subject line and preview text.
Web: the post's web address, search and sharing details, and comments.
Review: check everything, then publish or schedule.

Every setting saves as soon as you change it. There is no save button.

Once a post is published, most of these settings are locked. The exceptions are noted below.

Audience

Email, web or both

Under Publish your Newsletter to, pick one:

Email and web: emailed to subscribers and posted on your website.
Email only: emailed only. Readers can still open it in their browser through the email's "Read online" link, but it isn't listed on your website.
Web only: posted on your website, with no email.

Email audience

Option	Who receives it
All subscribers	Everyone subscribed to your publication.
All free plan subscribers	At the moment this reaches the same readers as All subscribers.
All paid plan subscribers	Readers with an active paid plan, including those on a trial.
Selective	Readers in the segments you pick.

With Selective, use the switch to choose Include segments or Exclude segments, then pick at least one segment. Each segment shows how many subscribers it has. An automatic segment is as up to date as its last refresh.

Web audience

Option	Who can read it on your website
All subscribers	Everyone.
All free plan subscribers	Everyone.
All paid plan subscribers	Readers with a paid plan. Everyone else sees a preview instead of the full post.

Email

Under Sending details:

Subject line: matches the post's title unless you change it. Up to 200 characters, and it can't be empty.
Preview text: the line many mail apps show after the subject. It matches the subtitle unless you change it. Up to 200 characters, and it can't be empty.

Under Advanced settings:

Custom Read Online URL: the email's "Read online" link normally opens the post on your website. Turn this on to send it to another address instead.
Redirect YouTube embeds to Web Newsletter: YouTube videos in the email normally open on YouTube. Turn this on to open your post's web version instead.

Once the email has gone out, the Email step disappears, because these details can no longer change anything.

Web

Newsletter URL is the end of your post's web address, after /post/. It is made from the title until you change it. It must:

be 3 to 100 characters long
use only lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens
not start or end with a hyphen, or have two hyphens in a row
not be used by another of your posts

The address is saved once it has been checked as free. Once the post is published, it can't be changed, because links in sent emails and search engines point to it.

You can also add or change the thumbnail here. 1200 x 630 pixels is recommended.

SEO Settings

Meta title and Meta description: what search engines show. They match the title and subtitle unless you change them. A title of about 60 characters and a description of about 145 work best.
Open Graph (Facebook and LinkedIn) and X (previously Twitter): the title and description shown when the post is shared there.

Post visibility

Hide the Newsletter from feed leaves the post out of your site's RSS feed and its post lists. It is still published, and anyone with its link can open it.

Feature the Newsletter is saved with the post, but your website doesn't use it yet.

Comments

Allow comments on this Newsletter lets readers comment on the web version. You can change this at any time, even after publishing, for example to close a thread.

If comments are turned off for your whole website, you'll see a note saying this won't take effect yet, with a Turn on comments link.

Review

Review and publish sums up the post:

Publish to: email, web or both, the email and web audiences, and any categories, with how many subscribers opted out of them
Newsletter Title: thumbnail, title, subtitle and authors
Subject line: subject and preview text

Each section has a button to jump back and edit it.

Publish Now

Click Publish Now, then Publish to confirm. The email starts going to your audience straight away, and this can't be undone. A window then shows your post's web address with a Copy button.

Schedule

Click Schedule, pick a date and time under Schedule for, then click Schedule. The time must be in the future. The post shows as Scheduled in your list until then.

Checks before publishing

Before publishing or scheduling, the post is checked. If anything is missing, you'll see "Please fix the following errors before publishing." followed by what to fix, such as:

a missing subject line
missing preview text (for example, when the post has no subtitle and you haven't written any)
Selective chosen with no segments picked
a missing or invalid web address
your publication's postal address, which every email must include

If your postal address is incomplete, the review page also shows Postal address required before sending with a link to add it.

After you publish

Your post's page shows how the send is going. If it is waiting, scheduled, or didn't go out, see the Why a send is held guide.

Troubleshooting

There's no Publish Now button: your role lets you write posts but not send them. The page says "Your post is ready. Someone with publishing access can send it."

"That time has already passed. Pick a new time.": the time you picked was in the past by the time you clicked. Choose a later time.

"This slug is already taken": another of your posts uses that address. Change it slightly.

The settings are greyed out: the post is published, so its audience and web settings are locked.

Fewer people received it than I expected: categories, paused readers and unsubscribes all reduce the audience. See the Why a send is held guide.