Newsletter Digest Compiler
Example prompt: "Every Friday at 2pm, look at the articles we published in the last 7 days from the 'Published' tab of our editorial Google Sheet, pull traffic numbers for each one from the 'Analytics' tab, and pick the four pieces worth leading the Sunday newsletter with — a mix of biggest reach, most thoughtful, and one quieter piece we want to give a second life. For each, write a 60-80 word blurb in our newsletter voice with the headline, byline, and link. Also include a one-paragraph editor's note slot at the top — leave it as '[editor's note — fill in]' for me to write Sunday morning. Save the full draft as a Google Doc called 'Newsletter — week of [date]' in the newsletters folder, and create a draft campaign in Mailchimp with the same content already laid out in our standard template. Don't schedule the send — leave it as a draft and post a Slack link in #editorial."
The Problem
The weekly newsletter is the kind of job that feels small until you sit down to do it. Someone has to look at every piece published that week, decide which four or five to feature, write a short blurb for each that does not just repeat the headline, balance the mix so the newsletter does not become a top-traffic listicle, and lay it all out in the email tool. For a busy editor it is two hours of context-switching at the end of the week, exactly when energy is lowest.
How GloriaMundo Solves It
We build a scheduled workflow that runs every Friday afternoon and produces a complete newsletter draft ready for the editor's final pass. An integration step reads the published-this-week list from the editorial Google Sheet and the traffic numbers from the analytics tab. A code step joins the two and computes a simple shortlist that mixes top-traffic pieces with at least one quieter piece. An LLM step writes a short blurb for each shortlisted article in the newsletter voice, working from the headline, dek, and a short extract. A second LLM step assembles the pieces into the standard newsletter structure with an editor's note placeholder at the top. Integration steps save the draft as a Google Doc and create a matching draft campaign in Mailchimp using the house template. A final Slack message tells the editor the draft is ready. Glass Box preview shows the full layout and every blurb before anything is written or pushed to Mailchimp.
Example Workflow Steps
- Trigger (scheduled): Runs every Friday at 2pm.
- Step 1 (integration): Read the 'Published' tab of the editorial Google Sheet, filtered to the last seven days.
- Step 2 (integration): Read the 'Analytics' tab and join page-view numbers onto the published list.
- Step 3 (code): Shortlist four pieces — top three by traffic plus one quieter piece with the highest engagement-per-view.
- Step 4 (LLM): Write a 60-80 word blurb for each shortlisted piece in the newsletter voice.
- Step 5 (LLM): Assemble the blurbs into the standard newsletter structure with an editor's note placeholder.
- Step 6 (integration): Save the full draft as a Google Doc in the newsletters folder.
- Step 7 (integration): Create a draft campaign in Mailchimp using the house template, populated with the same content.
- Step 8 (integration): Post a Slack message in #editorial with links to the doc and the Mailchimp draft.
Integrations Used
- Google Sheets — read the published list and analytics
- Google Docs — save the assembled newsletter draft for editorial review
- Mailchimp — create the draft email campaign in the house template
- Slack — notify the editor that the draft is ready
Who This Is For
Newsroom editors, independent publishers running a weekly digest, and content teams at publications where the newsletter is a real product and not an afterthought. Especially valuable when the same person who runs editorial also writes the newsletter.
Time & Cost Saved
A weekly newsletter compiled manually typically takes 90-120 minutes — pulling links, writing blurbs, laying out in the email tool. This workflow reduces it to 20-30 minutes of editorial judgement on the shortlist and a quick rewrite of any blurb that needs more voice. Roughly an hour back per week, every week.