Creating a newsletter from scratch each week follows the same pattern. You open 15 tabs, scan through a week’s worth of articles, pick the ones worth sharing, write intros for each, format the whole thing, and hit send. Three hours gone. Every single week.
AI newsletter generators promise to fix this. Tools like DigestFlow, Lindy, and HoppyCopy can draft newsletter copy from a topic or prompt. But they all share the same limitation: they decide what content goes in. You’re trusting a black box to pick what your audience sees, from sources you can’t control, with no filtering beyond a keyword or two.
There’s a better approach. Build the newsletter generator yourself on WordPress, where you control every piece of it: which sources feed into it, what filters decide relevance, how AI handles the editorial work, and how the final email gets delivered.
This guide walks through the full setup. By the end, you’ll have a system where RSS feeds automatically collect content from your chosen sources, keyword filters keep only what’s relevant, AI helps you write the editorial layer, and a WordPress email plugin handles the send. The whole pipeline takes an afternoon to build and about 30 minutes a week to run after that.
What AI Newsletter Generators Actually Do
Strip away the marketing and most AI newsletter generators do three things: find content, summarize or rewrite it, and format it into an email. The AI part handles the middle step. The sourcing and delivery are usually basic.
That’s where most of them fall short. The content sourcing layer is either a simple topic prompt (“write about AI news this week”) or a handful of URLs you paste in manually. There’s no ongoing monitoring of specific sources, no keyword-level filtering, and no way to build a library of curated content that grows over time.
RSS feeds solve the sourcing problem. Every major blog, news site, YouTube channel, podcast, and Substack publishes an RSS feed. These are structured, machine-readable files that update automatically whenever the source publishes something new. When you subscribe to a feed, you get every new article from that source without visiting the site or relying on a social media algorithm.
Combine RSS feeds with keyword filtering and you have the content discovery engine that SaaS newsletter generators wish they had. Add AI on top for the writing, and you’ve built something that does everything those tools do, except you own the entire pipeline and can see exactly how every piece of content got there.
The Stack: What You Need
The full newsletter pipeline has four layers. Each one handles a specific job.
Layer 1: Content sourcing (RSS feeds). You subscribe to the RSS feeds of publications you trust. These feeds update automatically, so your pipeline always has fresh content flowing in without you checking each site. If you’re new to RSS, the guide on how to find the RSS feed URL for any website covers how to get the feed URL for any source.
Layer 2: Filtering and import (WP RSS Aggregator). The plugin monitors all your feeds on a schedule, applies keyword and category filters to keep only what’s relevant, and imports matching articles as WordPress draft posts. This is where raw feeds become a curated content library. Everything you need for this tutorial is available on the Basic plan ($99/year).
Layer 3: AI editorial. You use an AI writing tool (ChatGPT, Claude, or a similar assistant) to add editorial value to the curated drafts: writing introductions, summarizing key points, adding your commentary. For fully automated rewriting, Aggregator also integrates with WordAi and SpinnerChief. This is the layer that turns a content dump into a newsletter worth reading.
Layer 4: Email delivery. A WordPress newsletter plugin pulls your curated, AI-edited posts into an email template and sends it to your subscriber list. MailPoet, the Newsletter plugin, or a Mailchimp integration all work here. Most of these have free tiers for smaller lists.
Step-by-Step: Building the Pipeline
This section walks through the full setup. We’ll use WP RSS Aggregator for the sourcing and filtering layers, ChatGPT or Claude for the AI editorial, and MailPoet for the send. You can swap in different tools at each layer without changing the overall workflow.
Step 1: Define Your Newsletter’s Focus and Find Sources
Before touching any plugin, answer two questions: what topic does your newsletter cover, and which publications consistently produce the best content on that topic?
Be specific. “Marketing” is too broad. “B2B SaaS content marketing” gives you a filter you can work with. The tighter your focus, the less noise your filters need to handle later.
Find 5 to 10 RSS feed sources to start. These should be publications you’d link to in a conversation with a colleague. Quality matters more than quantity here. A few reliable sources beat 50 mediocre ones. You can always add more later once your filters are dialed in.
Where to find feeds:
- Industry blogs: Most WordPress and CMS-based blogs publish RSS feeds automatically. Add
/feed/to the end of the URL to check. - News sites: Google News has RSS feeds for any topic or keyword search. These are useful for broad industry coverage.
- YouTube channels: Every channel has a hidden RSS feed. The YouTube RSS feed guide explains the URL format.
- Substack and newsletters: Most Substacks publish an RSS feed at
newsletter.substack.com/feed. - Competitor blogs: If they publish useful content your audience would benefit from seeing, add them. Attribution is built into the workflow.
Tip: Keep a simple list of your sources with the feed URL and a note about why you included each one. This helps later when you’re reviewing what’s working and what’s generating noise.
Step 2: Add Your Sources in Aggregator
Install and activate WP RSS Aggregator on your WordPress site. Go to Aggregator → Sources → Add New.
For each source:
- Paste the RSS feed URL into the Source Link field.
- Give it a descriptive name (e.g., “Search Engine Journal – Content Marketing”).
- Set Limit the number of stored items to control how many articles are kept from this source at any time. The default of 15 works for most weekly newsletters.
- Set Update every to match how often the source publishes. One hour is the default. For weekly newsletters, every few hours is fine. For daily digests, 15 to 30 minutes keeps things fresh.
Repeat for each of your 5-10 sources. There’s no limit on the number of feeds.
If you’re curating for multiple newsletters on the same site, use Folders to organize sources by topic. Create a folder for each newsletter (“AI Weekly,” “Marketing Digest”) and assign sources to the right folder. This keeps everything separate when it’s time to build each email.
Step 3: Set Up Keyword Filters
This is the step that separates a useful newsletter from a content dump. Without filters, everything from every source lands in your import queue. With filters, only content that matches your newsletter’s focus gets through.
Open any source and navigate to its Automations tab. Here you’ll create rules with one or more conditions:
- Keyword filtering: Include only items containing specific keywords, or exclude items with keywords you want to block. For a B2B marketing newsletter, you might include “content strategy,” “SEO,” and “email marketing” while excluding “crypto,” “NFT,” and “dropshipping.”
- Phrase filtering: Matches exact phrases rather than individual words. More precise when single keywords are too broad. “Content marketing” as a phrase filter won’t match articles about “content management” or “marketing automation.”
- Category and tag filtering: If the source’s feed includes category data (most WordPress blogs do), you can filter on those directly. This is often more reliable than keyword matching because the source author already categorized the content.
Each source can have multiple rules, and each rule can have multiple conditions. The filtering runs automatically every time the feed updates.
Newsletter-specific filter strategy: Start broad and narrow down. In your first week, set loose filters and review everything that comes through. You’ll quickly spot patterns: sources that generate too much noise, keywords that pull in off-topic content, categories that consistently produce gold. Adjust your rules based on what you see. By week three, your filters should be catching 80-90% of the irrelevant content before it reaches your review queue.
For a deeper walkthrough of every filter type and edge cases, the filtering RSS feeds tutorial covers all the options.
Step 4: Configure Feed to Post (Import as Drafts)
By default, Aggregator displays curated content as a live feed on your site. For the newsletter workflow, you want imported items to become WordPress draft posts. This gives you a queue of filtered, pre-screened content waiting for your editorial review.
In each source’s editor, scroll to the Post section and configure:
- Post type: Posts (or a custom post type like “Newsletter Items” if you want to keep curated content separate from your regular blog).
- Post status: Draft. This is critical for the newsletter workflow. You want to review and edit every piece before it goes into an email. Never set this to Published for newsletter content.
- Categories: Map imported content to a “Newsletter Queue” or topic-specific category. This makes it easy to pull the right content when building each issue.
- Author: Assign to yourself or a “Newsletter” user account.
Configure attribution on every source. Under the source’s advanced settings, enable automatic attribution that links back to the original article. This appends a credit line with the source name and URL to every imported post. It’s the ethical baseline for curation, and your newsletter subscribers will appreciate knowing where each piece originally came from.
At this point, Aggregator is doing the heavy lifting on autopilot. It checks your feeds on schedule, filters out noise, and delivers matching content as draft posts. Your WordPress dashboard becomes a curated inbox of newsletter-worthy content.
Step 5: Add the AI Editorial Layer
Here’s where the “AI newsletter generator” part comes in. You have a queue of filtered, relevant content. Now you need to turn it into something people want to read. Raw article titles and excerpts aren’t a newsletter. Commentary, context, and a consistent editorial voice make it one.
There are two approaches, and you can mix them.
Option A: AI-assisted editing (recommended)
This is the approach that produces the best newsletters. On your newsletter day (say, every Thursday), open your draft queue and review the week’s imports. Pick the 5-7 strongest pieces. Then use ChatGPT, Claude, or your preferred AI writing tool to help with the editorial work:
- Write a 2-3 sentence intro for each piece. Don’t just summarize the article. Tell your reader why it matters, what they’ll learn, or what surprised you about it. This is your editorial voice.
- Draft a newsletter intro and outro. A few sentences connecting this week’s theme, or a quick take on an industry trend.
- Generate subject lines. Ask for 5-10 options and pick the one that sounds like you.
Here’s a prompt template that works well for this:
I'm writing a weekly newsletter about [your topic] for [your audience].
Here are this week's curated articles:
1. [Title] - [URL] - [1-2 sentence summary from the import]
2. [Title] - [URL] - [1-2 sentence summary]
3. [Title] - [URL] - [1-2 sentence summary]
(repeat for each article)
For each article, write a 2-3 sentence editorial introduction that tells the
reader why this piece is worth their time. Be specific about what they'll learn.
Write in a conversational, direct tone. No fluff.
Then write a short newsletter intro (3-4 sentences) that connects the theme
of this week's picks.
Finally, suggest 5 subject line options. Keep them under 50 characters.This process takes about 20 to 30 minutes per issue. The AI handles the first draft of the editorial copy. You review, adjust the tone, add any personal takes, and finalize. The result reads like a curated newsletter with a real editorial perspective, not a list of links a robot assembled.
Option B: Automated rewriting with WordAi or SpinnerChief
If you’re running a high-frequency newsletter (daily digests, multiple sends per week), writing custom intros for every piece might not be realistic. Aggregator integrates with WordAi and SpinnerChief, which can automatically rewrite imported content at import time.
This approach works best when:
- You need unique versions of the content (to avoid duplicate content with the original source)
- You’re importing full articles rather than excerpts
- Volume matters more than a hand-crafted editorial voice
Both integrations require separate subscriptions and are available on all paid Aggregator plans. You configure the rewriting rules per source: spin the title, the content, or both. Set the uniqueness level and let it run at import time.
For most newsletters, Option A produces better results. Readers subscribe to newsletters for the editorial perspective, and AI-assisted editing preserves that while still saving you hours. Option B is better suited for high-volume content sites where the newsletter is one distribution channel among many.
Step 6: Build and Send the Newsletter
Now you need to get the curated, AI-edited content into an email and send it. Any WordPress newsletter plugin works here. We’ll walk through MailPoet because it’s the most WordPress-native option and has a free tier for up to 1,000 subscribers.
Setup in MailPoet:
- Install and activate MailPoet. Complete the initial setup wizard to configure your sender name, email address, and subscriber list.
- Go to MailPoet → Emails → Newsletters and create a new newsletter.
- In the drag-and-drop editor, add a “Automatic Latest Content” block (or use the post notification email type). Configure it to pull from the category you assigned to your curated drafts (e.g., “Newsletter Queue”).
- Set the posts to display with title, excerpt, and a “Read more” link. Add your newsletter header, intro text block, and footer.
- Before sending, change the curated posts you want to include from Draft to Published. MailPoet picks up published posts in the specified category.
- Preview, test-send to yourself, and then send to your list or schedule for your regular send time.
Other email options that work with this setup:
- Newsletter plugin: Free WordPress plugin with a “Compose with Posts” feature that lets you select specific posts to include in each email. Good for manual selection workflows.
- Mailchimp + MC4WP: If you already use Mailchimp, the MC4WP plugin handles subscriber management on WordPress. You’d build the email in Mailchimp’s editor and pull content from your curated posts via RSS-to-email (Mailchimp has a built-in RSS campaign type).
- FluentCRM: A WordPress-native CRM with email automation. More powerful if you want segmentation and drip sequences alongside your newsletter.
The Weekly Workflow (After Setup)
Once the pipeline is running, your weekly process looks like this:
- Monday to Wednesday: Aggregator runs on autopilot. RSS feeds update, keyword filters do their job, filtered content lands as drafts in your WordPress dashboard. You don’t touch anything.
- Thursday (newsletter day): Open your draft queue. Scan the week’s imports. Pick your 5-7 strongest pieces.
- Thursday (20-30 minutes): Paste your picks into ChatGPT or Claude with the prompt template. Edit the AI-generated intros. Write or refine the newsletter intro. Pick a subject line.
- Thursday (10 minutes): Publish the selected drafts. Open MailPoet. Verify the content block pulled the right posts. Preview. Test-send. Schedule or send immediately.
- Friday: Quick check on open rates and clicks. Note which topics performed well for next week’s curation decisions.
Total active time: about 30 to 45 minutes per week. Compare that to the 3+ hours of manual sourcing, writing, and formatting that most newsletter creators report.
Three Newsletter Types You Can Build
The pipeline is the same regardless of newsletter type. What changes is the sources you add, how you configure your filters, and how often you send.
Weekly industry roundup
Example: “This Week in Fintech” for financial advisors.
Sources: 8-12 industry publications, 2-3 Google News topic feeds, 1-2 competitor blogs.
Filters: Include keywords matching your niche. Exclude keywords for adjacent topics your audience doesn’t care about. Category filters work well here because industry blogs tend to categorize their content consistently.
AI layer: Option A (AI-assisted editing). The editorial voice is the whole point of a roundup. Readers want your take on why each article matters.
Send cadence: Weekly, same day and time. Consistency builds the habit for readers.
This is the most common newsletter type and the one that benefits most from the AI editorial workflow. It’s also the model that builds the strongest subscriber relationships because every issue carries your perspective.
Daily news digest
Example: “AI Daily” for tech professionals who want a quick morning briefing.
Sources: 15-20 feeds from fast-publishing sources. Google News keyword feeds, major tech publications, niche blogs. Set update frequency to 15-30 minutes.
Filters: Tight keyword rules are essential here. A daily digest from 20 sources without filtering would flood your queue. Use phrase filters over single keywords for precision. Exclude duplicates by filtering out common wire-service syndication patterns.
AI layer: Mix of Option A and B. Use automated rewriting (WordAi) for the bulk of items, then manually write a 1-2 sentence lead intro for the top story. Readers expect speed and breadth from a daily digest, not deep commentary.
Send cadence: Daily, early morning. Automate the send with MailPoet’s scheduling or Mailchimp’s RSS campaign feature.
Curated learning series
Example: “WordPress Growth Lab” collecting the best tutorials and case studies for WordPress site owners.
Sources: 5-8 educational blogs, documentation feeds, YouTube channels with tutorials. Fewer, higher-quality sources work better for this format.
Filters: Category and tag filters are your best tool here. Most tutorial blogs categorize by skill level or topic. Filter for “beginner” or “advanced” depending on your audience. Keyword filters catch the rest.
AI layer: Option A, with a focus on context. For each tutorial, explain what the reader will learn, what skill level it assumes, and how it connects to the previous week’s content. This is where AI really earns its keep, since writing educational context is time-consuming but follows a predictable structure that AI handles well.
Send cadence: Weekly or biweekly. Educational content doesn’t expire as fast as news, so a slower cadence works fine and gives readers time to actually complete the tutorials.
Build Your Own vs. SaaS: When Each Makes Sense
The honest answer is that SaaS AI newsletter generators and the DIY approach described here serve different needs. Neither is universally better.
| DIY (RSS + AI + WordPress) | SaaS AI Newsletter Generator | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 2-3 hours (one-time) | 15-30 minutes |
| Weekly time | 30-45 minutes | 10-15 minutes |
| Content sourcing | Full control (choose exact sources, keyword filtering) | AI picks from general web or preset sources |
| Editorial voice | Strong (you write/edit the commentary) | Generic (AI-generated throughout) |
| Cost (year 1) | $99/yr (Aggregator) + free email plugin | $20-100/month ($240-1,200/yr) |
| Subscriber ownership | Your WordPress site, your list | Platform-dependent |
| Scalability | Unlimited sources and filters | Usually capped by plan tier |
| Best for | Niche expertise, brand building, long-term newsletters | Quick launches, testing ideas, low-touch distribution |
Choose the DIY approach when you want full control over what content goes into your newsletter, you’re building a brand around your editorial perspective, and you already run a WordPress site. The upfront setup takes longer, but the ongoing cost is lower and you own every piece of the pipeline.
Choose a SaaS tool when you need a newsletter running by tomorrow, you don’t have a WordPress site, or the newsletter is a secondary channel where speed matters more than editorial depth.
Hybrid approach: Some creators use the DIY pipeline for content discovery and curation, then export the curated list to a SaaS email tool like ConvertKit or Beehiiv for delivery. This gets you the best content sourcing without needing MailPoet or a WordPress-based email setup. Aggregator handles the sourcing; you handle the send wherever you prefer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need coding skills?
No. Everything in this tutorial uses plugin interfaces and drag-and-drop editors. Adding RSS sources, configuring filters, and building email templates are all point-and-click operations. The only “technical” step is pasting RSS feed URLs, which the feed URL guide makes straightforward.
How much does this cost?
The core setup costs $99/year for WP RSS Aggregator’s Basic plan, which includes Feed to Post, keyword filtering, display templates, and AI integrations (WordAi/SpinnerChief). MailPoet is free for up to 1,000 subscribers. ChatGPT and Claude both have free tiers that cover light editorial use. If you already have a WordPress site and hosting, you can launch a newsletter for under $100/year in tooling costs.
Can I run multiple newsletters from one site?
Yes. Use Aggregator’s Folders to organize sources by newsletter topic. Assign each newsletter’s imports to a different WordPress category. Then create separate email templates in MailPoet (or your email plugin of choice) that pull from the right category. One Aggregator installation can power as many newsletters as you need.
How do I avoid my newsletter looking like a content dump?
Two things make the difference. First, filter aggressively. Only include content that genuinely belongs in your newsletter. Five great picks beat 15 mediocre ones. Second, add editorial commentary to every piece. Even 2-3 sentences explaining why you included an article transforms a link list into a curated recommendation. That’s what Step 5 is for, and it’s where the AI editorial layer earns its place in the workflow.
Does this work with Substack, Beehiiv, or ConvertKit?
The content sourcing and curation pipeline (Steps 1-5) works regardless of your email tool. If you use Substack or Beehiiv instead of a WordPress email plugin, you’d use Aggregator for the content discovery and AI editing, then manually copy the curated content into your preferred platform’s editor. It’s an extra step compared to the all-WordPress approach, but the time savings on sourcing and editorial still apply.
Is it OK to send other people’s content in a newsletter?
Yes, when you do it right. Curated newsletters share excerpts and links to original sources, not full republished articles. You’re driving traffic to the original publishers, which most of them appreciate. Always include attribution (Aggregator handles this automatically), link to the original, and add your own editorial context. This is standard practice for newsletters like TLDR, The Hustle, and Morning Brew, which all built large audiences on curated content.
What if I want AI to handle more of the writing automatically?
Aggregator’s WordAi and SpinnerChief integrations can rewrite imported content automatically at import time, reducing the manual editing step. You can also use automation tools like Zapier or Make to connect Aggregator’s output to an AI writing API for more customized transformations. The pipeline in this guide is designed to be modular: you can automate more of each layer as your needs grow without rebuilding the whole thing.
The newsletter creators who stick with it long-term are the ones who build a system they can actually maintain. Manually sourcing content from scratch every week is a recipe for burnout. Building a pipeline where RSS feeds handle discovery, filters handle relevance, and AI handles the first draft of editorial copy is how you keep a newsletter sustainable without hiring a team.
The setup described in this guide takes an afternoon. After that, you’re spending 30 to 45 minutes per week on what should actually take your time: choosing the best content and adding your perspective. That’s the part your subscribers are paying attention to. Everything else should be automated.
WP RSS Aggregator handles the sourcing, filtering, and import layers of the pipeline, starting at $99/year on the Basic plan. If you already have an automated content curation setup, adding the newsletter workflow is a matter of connecting an email plugin to what’s already running. And if you’re starting from scratch, this tutorial gives you every step.
