Building an Issue

An issue is a single edition of your newsletter — the content that goes out to subscribers on a specific send. Building an issue involves adding links (which get AI-summarized automatically), organizing them into categories, and optionally writing a personal foreword.

Create a new issue

1. Click the Newsletters icon (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 three main areas: the foreword section at the top, categories and links in the middle, and the send controls at the top right.

Add a link

Links are the core content of an issue. When you add a link, Distill scrapes the page and generates an AI summary automatically.

1. Click Add link inside any category, or click Add link at the bottom of the issue.
2. Paste the URL into the input field.
3. Click Add.

The link card appears immediately with a loading state while the AI pipeline processes the content. Within a few seconds, the card updates with the page title and a generated summary.

You can add as many links as you want. There is no hard limit per issue, though shorter issues tend to perform better for reader engagement.

Organize into categories

Categories group your links into thematic sections in the sent email. For example, a real estate newsletter might have "Market Trends", "Local News", and "Featured Listings" as categories.

When you add your first link, a default "General" category is created. To rename it:

1. Click the category name — it is editable inline.
2. Type the new name.
3. Press Enter or click outside the field.

Add a new category:

1. Click Add category at the bottom of the issue.
2. Enter the category name.
3. Press Enter.

Move links between categories:

Drag and drop any link card to a different category. You can also drag the category headers themselves to reorder the sections.

Edit an AI summary

Every link gets an AI-generated summary automatically. You can edit any summary before sending:

1. Click the summary text on a link card.
2. The text becomes editable in place.
3. Make your changes.
4. Click outside the field or press Escape to save.

Edited summaries are saved immediately. If you want to discard your edits and regenerate the AI summary, click the Regenerate icon on the link card.

Write a foreword

The foreword is an optional personal introduction at the top of the email, above the links. It is a great place to add context, commentary, or a personal note to your subscribers.

To write a foreword:

1. Click the Foreword area at the top of the issue editor.
2. Type your message.
3. Your text is saved automatically as you type.

The foreword supports basic formatting — bold, italic, and links. It does not support images or embedded media.

Remove a link

To remove a link from an issue:

1. Hover over the link card.
2. Click the trash icon that appears.
3. The link is removed from the issue. This does not affect other issues.

Preview the issue

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

1. Click Preview in the top-right area of the issue editor.
2. The preview opens in a modal showing the rendered email HTML.
3. You can toggle between desktop and mobile preview sizes.

The preview uses your workspace's current template and branding settings.

Issue status

An issue progresses through these statuses as you work:

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

Next steps

• AI-Powered Summaries
• Scheduling a Send