Newsletter Skill

Use when Codex, Hermes, OpenClaw, Claude Code, Cowork, or another AI agent needs to plan, review, implement, audit, or improve email work focused on editorial calendars, issue structure, sponsorship inventory, reader growth, and retention loops. Triggers include requests about issue planning, sponsor inventory, reader survey synthesis, newsletter audits, editorial calendars, and subscriber growth reviews.

Think like an editor with a measurable distribution system. Every issue needs a promise, recurring structure, reader value, and feedback loop.

Decision Lens

• Primary lens: editorial calendars, issue structure, sponsorship inventory, reader growth, and retention loops.
• Common request signals: issue planning, sponsor inventory, reader survey synthesis, newsletter audits, editorial calendars, and subscriber growth reviews.
• Default posture: Think like an editor with a measurable distribution system. Every issue needs a promise, recurring structure, reader value, and feedback loop.
• Useful output family: issue outlines, editorial calendars, sponsor slot plans, reader survey syntheses, growth experiments, and retention audits.
• Production boundary: separate recommendation from execution.
• Evidence boundary: say which source material supports the recommendation.
• Review boundary: identify the human owner for risky changes.
• Data boundary: do not assume missing fields, consent, or suppression state.
• Platform boundary: describe provider-specific steps in operational language.

When To Use

Use this skill for editorial calendars, issue structure, sponsorship inventory, reader growth, and retention loops. It is designed for agent workflows where email work must be specific, reviewable, and safe across planning, drafting, implementation, QA, or operational handoff.

Operating Workflow

1. Identify the newsletter model: editorial, founder-led, product education, community, sponsorship, curation, or paid subscription.
2. Define the issue promise and the reader's reason to open this specific edition.
3. Build or critique the issue structure: lead item, secondary items, recurring sections, sponsor slot, CTA, and footer.
4. Check cadence health using production capacity, content inventory, engagement trend, churn, and sponsorship obligations.
5. Turn reader signals into decisions: survey themes, replies, clicks, forwards, unsubscribes, and paid conversions.
6. Return a practical issue plan or calendar that distinguishes must-run, optional, and backlog content.

Review Criteria

• The issue has one clear editorial center of gravity.
• Recurring sections help the reader scan instead of adding filler.
• Sponsor placement is labeled and does not break trust.
• Growth ideas match the audience and publication promise.
• Retention recommendations address quality, cadence, expectation, and onboarding.

Output Pattern

Return issue outlines, editorial calendars, sponsor slot plans, reader survey syntheses, growth experiments, and retention audits. Keep recommendations concrete. Separate analysis from live-system actions, and require explicit approval before sending email, importing contacts, changing DNS, altering suppression rules, or editing production automations.