How The Texas Tribune Scaled 12+ Newsletters on beehiiv

Key Metrics at a Glance

• 12+ newsletters managed on beehiiv
• 20+ automations built and launched
• 2 new newsletters launched since migrating to beehiiv
• Up to 60 min saved per send on editorial formatting
• 6.04% click-through rate (last quarter)
• Multiple A/B tests run on headlines to optimize engagement

“beehiiv has allowed us to intuitively build and produce new newsletters, listen to our readers easier, and get essential news to audiences faster. Most critically, beehiiv has served as a primary lever of membership growth and revenue.”

Ryan Kim, Product Manager, The Texas Tribune

Situation: A Nonprofit Newsroom With a Newsletter-First Strategy

Founded in 2009, The Texas Tribune reaches millions of readers across Texas with nonpartisan coverage of state politics, policy, and the issues that affect everyday Texans.

While the Tribune’s website draws a large digital audience, newsletters sit at the center of its product strategy. The organization operates a portfolio of more than a dozen newsletters, from deep dives into the Texas Capitol to reporting from communities across the state. Each email is designed to build trust, strengthen relationships, and drive memberships, donations, and deeper engagement.

With newsletters acting as a primary growth lever, the Tribune needed infrastructure that could keep up with both its editorial ambitions and its expansion across brands.

Challenge: Mailchimp Couldn’t Support a Multi-Newsletter Operation

Before switching to beehiiv, The Texas Tribune ran its newsletter operations on Mailchimp. As the team scaled from a few core sends to a broader portfolio, the limitations became clear.

Formatting often broke when content moved from shared documents into Mailchimp, forcing editors to manually fix text and layout issues. The authoring experience slowed the team down, and support was not designed for a newsroom operating at this level of complexity.

With new local newsrooms launching in 2025, the team needed a more unified system to manage newsletter production. The next phase required better targeting, cleaner workflows, and a more reliable publishing experience with beehiiv.

As Ryan Kim puts it, “Since adopting beehiiv, we’ve continued to strengthen the connection between newsletters and our membership funnel. Better targeting and more relevant messaging have made our revenue efforts more efficient.”

Solution: An Editorial-First Platform Built for Scale

The Texas Tribune migrated its newsletter operation to beehiiv, gaining the ability to run 12+ newsletters from a single platform while continuing to expand into new markets.

A Cleaner Workflow That Saves up to 60 Minutes Per Send

The Tribune’s editorial process begins in shared documents, where reporters and editors collaborate on content before publishing.

Previously, formatting issues created friction at the final step. On beehiiv, formatting is preserved, allowing editors to move content seamlessly without rework. This shift saves the team up to 60 minutes per send and keeps the focus on the journalism itself.

20+ Automations Supporting Growth and Retention

In its first year on beehiiv, the Tribune built more than 20 automations, each serving a specific role across the lifecycle. These include welcome flows for new subscribers, list-cleaning workflows that maintain audience quality, and renewal sequences that re-engage members. These systems now reduce manual upkeep across the team.

Ryan Kim explained,“We rely quite a bit on beehiiv’s automation. Over the past year, we’ve built and launched more than 20 workflows for different purposes. At this point, they run in the background, which lets us spend more time on growth.”

Launching New Newsletters Across Local Brands

Since moving to beehiiv, The Texas Tribune has launched two new newsletters across its local brands.

Using reusable templates and a flexible editor, the team has been able to move quickly from idea to launch. The onboarding process was also simplified through beehiiv’s smart warming system, which required minimal manual involvement.

Polls and First-Party Data Collection

The Texas Tribune uses polls to better understand reader preferences and behavior. These insights inform decisions across content, design, and audience strategy.

Non-technical team members can quickly create and deploy polls, making feedback collection more frequent and accessible. The team also connects poll responses to automations. For example, readers who opt into a newsletter through a poll are automatically added to the relevant list.

Analytics and Testing That Inform Editorial Strategy

The Texas Tribune integrates beehiiv’s analytics into an internal dashboard used by leadership, product, and editorial teams.

They track list growth, engagement, and campaign performance, while also running A/B tests on subject lines to better understand what resonates with readers. These insights feed directly into editorial decisions.

Results: Faster Publishing and Stronger Engagement

The move to beehiiv improved both operational efficiency and audience outcomes.

6.04% Click-Through Rate Across Newsletters

In the last quarter, 6.04% of recipients clicked through to Tribune content. This level of engagement is strong for a large and diverse news audience and reflects the relevance of the content being delivered.

The Brief: A High-Engagement Flagship Newsletter

The Tribune’s flagship newsletter, The Brief, delivers daily coverage of Texas politics, including key stories and upcoming events.

The team also identified a highly engaged segment of readers and introduced a weekly AI-generated news quiz. This format consistently drives some of the highest open rates across the Tribune’s email history.

A Stronger Driver of Membership and Revenue

More precise targeting and relevant messaging have made newsletters a more effective driver of membership growth and revenue.

beehiiv plays a central role in this system, helping the Tribune guide readers from casual engagement to deeper involvement with its journalism.

Why The Texas Tribune Chose beehiiv

The Texas Tribune didn’t just switch ESPs. They moved to infrastructure that supports how their newsroom operates, with better workflows, more flexibility, and the ability to scale across brands without added complexity.

In Ryan Kim’s words, “Since moving to beehiiv, we’ve launched two new newsletters across our local brands. The ability to repurpose templates accelerated the build process, and the smart warming setup was simple and largely hands-off.”

beehiiv has enabled the Tribune to launch faster, understand its audience more clearly, and operate more efficiently.

For a nonprofit newsroom, where time and resources are limited, those gains translate directly into impact.

The Texas Tribune’s story shows that beehiiv is built for organizations running complex, high-impact publishing operations.

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