Features
The whole business of a print newsletter, in the order you actually do it.
Set up the publication, sell subscriptions, write the issue, approve the run. Every feature below carries a plain label — live, in testing, or coming later — because a print run is not the place to discover that a feature was a promise.
Step 1
Publication setup
Name it, choose what it will physically be, set the calendar and the price. The platform refuses combinations no provider can print.
- Live
Guided setup with economics shown first
Set the format, page count, color and price, and see estimated per-issue cost and contribution before anything is published. Every estimate is labelled as one until a provider quote replaces it.
- Live
Format and page count validated against providers
Folded self-mailer (4, 8 or 12 pages), stapled booklet (8–56 pages in multiples of four) or flat letter (up to 12 duplex pages in a #10 window envelope). You cannot pick a 10-page booklet, because none of the researched providers can make one.
- Live
Monthly calendar with three dates
A subscriber cutoff (default the 20th), a production deadline (default the 25th) and a mail date (default the 1st). Drafts for upcoming issues are created automatically so the next issue is always waiting for you.
- Live
Monthly and annual plans
Set a monthly price and, optionally, an annual price. Annual revenue is counted at one-twelfth per month in every report so it never flatters a single month.
Step 2
Storefront & checkout
A subscription page for readers, with payments that land in the publisher's own payment account rather than ours.
- In testing
Hosted subscription page
A clean page for each publication with the price, the format, a description and sample images, at a URL you can share. Custom domains are planned for a later release.
- In testing
Checkout that collects a mailing address
Readers pay by card and enter a US mailing address in the same flow. The address is verified before the first issue is included in a mailing list.
- In testing
Payments into your own account
Reader subscriptions are charged on your own Stripe account, which you control. If you leave the platform, those subscriptions keep billing there. We never hold your readers' money.
- In testing
Reader self-service portal
Readers update their card and mailing address, pause or cancel, and see which issue a change will apply to — without emailing you.
- Coming in a later release
Gift subscriptions and complimentary copies
Gift subscriptions with a fixed end date, and complimentary copies for contributors or press, each tracked as its own record and counted correctly in costs.
Step 3
Writing & print production
Write in the editor or bring your own PDF. Either way the output is a validated, locked print file.
- Live
Print-ready PDF upload with validation
Upload a PDF and we check the page count against your format and the file size against provider limits before it can be approved. Problems are listed in plain English with what to change.
- In testing
Built-in editor with print templates
Write in a structured editor and let the platform lay the issue out to your trim size using one of six templates. The editor is rolling out to early-access publishers; PDF upload is available to everyone today.
- Live
Version history and locking
Every substantive save creates a version. The version you approve is frozen with a checksum, and the mailing run refers to that exact file — nothing you edit afterwards can change what gets printed.
- In testing
Print preview
A screen rendering of the locked file, clearly labelled as a preview rather than a press proof. Where a provider offers a printed proof, you can order one from the issue page.
Step 3½
Subscribers & addresses
One record per reader, with the address state, the payment state and the entitlement decision for every issue.
- Live
Address status on every subscriber
Every address is marked verified, verified with a warning, invalid or undeliverable. Invalid addresses are excluded from the mailing list and flagged in your dashboard before the cutoff, so you never pay to print a copy that can't be delivered.
- In testing
Automatic address verification
New and changed addresses are standardized and checked against the USPS database through the address-verification service of the connected provider, and corrections are suggested to the reader at checkout.
- Live
Entitlement rules that decide who gets each issue
A copy is owed when a subscription is paid through the cutoff instant. Renewal dates that differ from the mail date never cause a missed copy; duplicate payment events never cause a duplicate copy; cancellations at period end keep the issues already paid for.
- In testing
Failed-payment handling
A reader whose card fails is retried and emailed by the payment processor, shown as 'needs payment' in your list, and left out of the mailing list until paid through the next cutoff.
- Live
Returned mail and suppressions
Record a returned envelope against the subscriber, and the platform suppresses further copies until the address is fixed. Suppressions always win over paid status.
- Coming in a later release
CSV import for existing lists
Bring an existing subscriber list with addresses and paid-through dates. Imported subscribers are marked as migrated so you can tell them apart in reports.
Step 4
Printing & mailing
A mailing run is a frozen list, a locked file and a quote. You approve it once; the provider does the rest.
- Live
Frozen manifest at cutoff
At the cutoff, the platform computes who is entitled to the issue and freezes the recipient list with each address as it stood. The manifest is never regenerated from the live list, so what you approve is exactly what mails.
- Live
One approval screen with the real total
Recipient count, product, locked file, the quoted print and postage cost, and every warning (invalid addresses, excluded unpaid subscribers) on one screen. The approve button states what can't be undone.
- In testing
Connected print-and-mail providers
The locked file and the manifest go to the provider's API when you approve. Provider adapters are built against published documentation and are being tested in vendor sandboxes; until they are live, runs are fulfilled through operator-managed fulfillment.
- Live
Operator-managed fulfillment
For early-access publishers, our team places the order with a commercial print-and-mail provider from the same frozen manifest and records the provider's confirmation on the run. The run shows exactly which provider and mode was used.
- Live
Provider status on every run
Each run shows its state from 'awaiting approval' through 'submitted', 'accepted', 'printing' and 'mailed'. 'Delivered' appears only when a provider confirms a delivery scan — never as an assumption.
- Live
Duplicate-safe submission
A run moves through explicit states, and a submission that times out stays 'in progress' until it is reconciled against the provider. A retry can never create a second order for the same run.
Always on
Revenue & profitability
Per-issue and per-subscriber figures from real charges and real invoices — labelled as estimates until they aren't.
- Live
Per-issue profit and loss
Subscription revenue attributable to the issue, less printing, postage, card fees and our fees, with the provider invoice attached once it exists.
- Live
Contribution and margin per subscriber
What each subscriber contributes after variable costs, and what a change in price or page count would do to it. Definitions are shown in plain English next to every metric.
- Live
Cost and profit calculator
Model price, subscriber count, churn, acquisition cost and annual plans before you commit. Pre-filled with your publication's real quote once you have one.
- Coming in a later release
Cohort retention and churn reports
Retention by signup month and churn by plan, to tell a pricing problem from a content problem.
Yours
Ownership & portability
Your writing, your readers, your payment relationship. The platform is a tool, not a landlord.
- Live
No royalties, no revenue share
You pay a software subscription and the disclosed cost of each mailing run. Any per-transaction fee is shown on the pricing page before you sign up, and today there is none.
- In testing
Full export at any time
Subscribers, addresses, issues, versions, mailing runs and financial records as CSV and PDF, from your settings page, with no waiting period.
- In testing
Subscriptions that survive your departure
Because readers pay into your own Stripe account, cancelling your platform subscription does not cancel theirs. You can keep billing them with another tool.
- Live
Audit trail
Who approved which version, when a manifest was frozen, which provider accepted which run. Every significant action is recorded and visible to the organization's owner.
The dashboard
These are the real interface components, with demo data.
The same components back the live publisher dashboard. The publication, the people and the numbers are illustrative.
The Curious Gardener · Alex Morgan
Demo publication · illustrative dataActive paying subscribers
105
+9 this month
Monthly recurring revenue
$3,045
+$261
Next issue fulfillment
Estimate$526
109 copies · Nov issue
Contribution margin
Estimate79%
after print & postage
Needs your attention
- Your November issue is ready to approve — cutoff in 6 days.Review & approve →
- 5 subscribers need valid mailing addresses before the cutoff.Fix addresses →
- 5 subscriber payments failed and are retrying.View →
- October issue mailed: 89 pieces entered the mail stream, 1 returned.See run →
See how the four steps fit together.
The monthly cycle, what readers see, and what clicking approve commits you to.