Beehiiv moves to make newsletter monetisation 'background work' for creators

Newsletter platform Beehiiv has stepped up its push to make monetisation easier and more predictable for creators, hiring a senior executive to scale its advertising business and committing to double the size of the team by the end of March.

The company has appointed Andrew MacMannis as vice president of ad sales and customer success, tasking him with leading brand and agency partnerships as Beehiiv seeks to replicate YouTube’s AdSense-style model through its in-house Ad Network.

“Our goal as a platform is to help as many creators and publishers as possible to build sustainable businesses,” said Beehiiv co-founder and chief executive Tyler Denk. “The Beehiiv Ad Network is a massive bet on making monetisation accessible to everyone with a newsletter, the same way that YouTube did for video creators.”

MacMannis joins from LiveIntent, where he worked on scaling email-based advertising for publishers. Beehiiv said the hire reflects its continued focus on building advertising into the platform, allowing creators to earn without negotiating individual brand deals.

Beehiiv launched its Ad Network in 2023 following its acquisition of newsletter ad marketplace Swapstack. The network functions as an in-house sales engine, matching advertisers with newsletters across the platform and handling campaign placement.

The company said the Ad Network now works with more than 30,000 publishers, supporting newsletters with subscriber bases ranging from around 1,000 to more than one million. Beehiiv says it pays out more than $1 million per month to publishers, with creators earning more than $35 million to date through its monetisation tools.

Beehiiv’s YouTube-style playbook comes as lower barriers to entry have led to a sharp rise in the number of creators, expanding the pool of potential partners for brands. Across the creator economy, platforms and agencies are increasingly testing automated tools to connect advertisers with creators at scale, rather than relying on one-off negotiations.

“We’re in the middle of a fundamental shift in how media is created, distributed and monetised,” MacMannis said. “Creators are building real businesses, and Beehiiv is building the infrastructure that allows those businesses to scale predictably, profitably and on their own terms.”

Brands using Beehiiv’s Ad Network include Notion, Google, Netflix, HubSpot, Deel and Roku, according to the company.