Building an Issue

An issue is a single edition of your newsletter — the content that goes out to subscribers on a specific send. You build issues by adding sections, which are modular content blocks you can arrange in any order.

Create a new issue

1. Click Newsletters in the sidebar and open the newsletter you want to work in.
2. Click New issue.
3. Enter an Issue title (for example, "March 2026" or "Week of March 3").
4. Click Create.

You land in the issue editor, which has the section builder on the left and a sidebar with issue details and a checklist on the right.

Understanding sections

Sections are the building blocks of your newsletter. Each section is a self-contained piece of content that appears in the final email in the order you arrange them.

There are five section types:

To learn how each section type works in detail, see Sections & AI Content.

Add a section

1. Click the + Add Section button at the bottom of the section list.
2. A menu appears with all five section types. Click the one you want.
3. The section appears at the bottom of the list.

You can add as many sections as you want in any combination. A typical newsletter might look like:

• Text Block (welcome intro)
• Link Group ("Market News")
• Link Group ("Industry Updates")
• Divider
• Text Block (closing thoughts)
• Sponsor

Reorder sections

Drag any section by the grip handle on the left side of its header. Drop it where you want it to appear. The order in the editor matches the order in the sent email.

Edit a section title

Click the section title in the header bar to edit it inline. Press Enter or click away to save. Section titles appear as headings in the sent email.

Generate content with AI

Text Block and Link Group sections have a sparkle icon () in the section header. Click it to have AI write content for that section.

• Text blocks get a full written passage based on the newsletter context, surrounding sections, and your AI settings.
• Link groups get an intro paragraph that ties together the links in that group.

The AI uses your newsletter's configured tone and length settings. Content streams in real time and is saved automatically when complete. You can edit AI-generated content afterward.

See Sections & AI Content for details on each section type and how AI generation works.

AI Scaffold

If you are starting from scratch with a set of links, click AI Scaffold in the top-right to have AI analyze your links and generate an optimal section structure automatically. This creates titled sections and assigns links to appropriate groups.

Add links to an issue

Links go inside Link Group or Featured Link sections. To add a link:

1. Expand a Link Group section.
2. Click Add Link and paste a URL, or click Bulk Add to paste multiple URLs (one per line).
3. Links are processed automatically — Distill scrapes the page and generates an AI summary within seconds.

Links added without a section appear in the Unassigned Links area at the bottom of the editor. Assign them to a section before sending.

Preview the issue

Before sending, preview how the issue will look as an email:

1. Click Preview in the top-right.
2. The preview shows the rendered email using your workspace template and branding.
3. Toggle between desktop and mobile sizes.

Issue status

Once an issue is Sent, you cannot edit its content. You can still view analytics.

Next steps

• Sections & AI Content — deep dive into each section type
• AI-Powered Summaries — how link summaries work
• Scheduling a Send