Newsletter platform Beehiiv is expanding into new avenues of engagement with the launch of 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 platform for creators beyond newsletters. In recent months, the company has launched podcasts, webinars, and customizable paywalls. Some of these measures are already showing positive results. The company said that 50% of podcast users migrated their shows from elsewhere, for example.

Beehiiv’s new community tool will allow users to create a discussion forum within the platform. Nowadays, creators typically 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 moderated conversations.

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

The platform also presents an additional revenue generation opportunity with programmatic ads, which allow users to sell advertising space in their newsletters. They can earn money by choosing the ads that potentially offer the highest returns based on their audience, content, and performance.

The company already has tools like metered paywalls, paid trials, and a sponsorship store to sell its own slots in packages. Additionally, Beehiiv said the platform’s publishers earn more than $1 million a month through its advertising 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 tips on how to manage their newsletter and grow their audience. The assistant can analyze the performance of various newsletters and podcasts, write outreach campaigns, and look for new opportunities to make money.

The assistant is one of several AI efforts underway. Earlier this year, the company launched a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, which allows users to connect their Beehiiv with other assistants like ChatGPT and Claude to ask questions and get information. It is also working on better AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), which helps a newsletter get cited in AI assistant responses more frequently.

Along with these updates, the company is launching a redesigned editor that allows users to see edit and preview modes side by side, helping them understand how the content they are writing will appear 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 use them to grow their publications.

The platform’s rivals are also evolving by launching new offerings. For example, Riverside launched a newsletter publishing feature last month and Substack launched an integrated recording studio product in March.