Merging two Substack newsletters
Steps I used to merge a separate Substack newsletter into a section in this one, and what I learned in the process
Today I’m merging my agileTeams newsletter into the agile section here in Agile Analytics and Beyond. This post captures my experience with migrating the content and subscribers. I’m sharing this in case it might be useful to others who either:
already have multiple publications and may want to combine them, or
are thinking about having multiple publications and wondering if the decision is a “two-way door” or a “one-way door” - i.e., how much friction you’ll feel if you change your mind later!
See the Postscript section at the end for new lessons learned after this post was first published about the friction of content migration.
Migration Steps
My plan for merging the agileTeams newsletter here has 5 steps.
Copying the content (posts and pages) to the (existing) agile section here.
Updating the publication settings. This includes changing the About and Welcome pages and disabling new comments there (community settings). I also changed the post headers and footers, and the email templates sent to new subscribers.
Updating links to the newsletter in pages and lists in my other newsletters and social media presences, and moving its recommendations here.
Notifying my subscribers - the purpose of this final post - and making any subscriber list updates needed.
Updating any embedded agileTeams links that are inside past AAaB posts. (This may take a while to find & do, and isn’t urgent.)
Substack experts: did I overlook anything important?
Steps 1-3 have been completed. The rest of this post describes Step 1, content migration, and Step 4, subscriber migration.
Step 1. Content Migration
For anyone interested, the migration advice I got from the Substack bot is below in the End Notes 1. The agile section already existed; it holds content migrated previously from WordPress. So I didn’t need to do anything for that. (FYI, the support chatbot doesn’t mention this, but by default, current newsletter subscribers are NOT opted in to a newly created newsletter section.)
Exporting from agileTeams
I started the Export at 10:42pm on July 11. It finished within 2 minutes. The 95 kB ZIP file contained my subscriber list, a CSV file with a list of my posts (published and unpublished, including a draft announcement to my subscribers), and a folder of posts in HTML, plus CSV files counting delivery and open statistics for the new posts I’d created since February.
Importing to Agile Analytics and Beyond
On the Import part of the settings in AAaB, I put in the URL of the agileTeams publication. There was no place to point the importer to the ZIP file I had exported 🤷♀️.
Next, I got to choose the AAaB section to import the posts into (agile). The meaning of “Update existing posts” in the dialog below wasn’t clear (delete? cross-link?), so I asked the bot. Answer is below 2 and I’m glad I asked. It wasn’t at all what I was thinking, and wasn’t relevant at this point; there were no duplicate posts between the two newsletters.
I was a little concerned that this dialog showed “20 posts found”. The correct number was 26 (excluding the unpublished drafts). But I proceeded.
Substack prompted me to confirm that I own the publication - which seemed odd. (Wouldn’t it be safer for Substack to actually verify that I’m the owner, rather than just let me click a button?)
After I clicked Next, the page was busy for about 10 seconds, then brought me back to the Archive page. No confirmation, no error messages. But the second post in the list was my July 3 retrospective, migrated, so that looked good.
Scrolling through the list, though, it was clear that only 20 were imported. One page and 5 old posts were missing. 🙁 I realized the page might be elsewhere in the newsletter, so I checked the list of pages, but it wasn’t there either.
At this point, rather than wrestle with the importer, I decided to manually copy and paste the 6 missing items. The 5 posts were a bit tedious because the publish date and time can’t be edited until after it’s been published, and I had to be sure to uncheck the box that defaults to sending the new posts to my subscribers. (Apologies to any subscribers if I missed one; please ignore that 2009-2010 vintage content!) The publications page was easy to migrate; it was recent, I didn’t care if the date was a bit off, and pages aren’t sent to subscribers by default like posts are. This manual migration took about an hour.
Even though I didn’t use the exported ZIP file directly in the Import, I was glad to have it. It was easier to track down the 6 missing posts in the workbook than by repeatedly clicking through the site.
I’ll manually migrate the announcement to agileTeams subscribers after it’s sent.
Step 4. Subscriber Migration
In my case, this was trivial. I had already confirmed that all but one of my agileTeams subscribers were already subscribers here. I only had one person who only subscribed to agileTeams.
They are a very new subscriber who had followed me here from Facebook just last week. I’ve known them for decades and I’m confident they won’t mind the move. I sent them a special email message tonight about what I am doing and why. Then I added them to this publication as a subscriber, and sent a welcome email. I’ll confirm with them in the morning.
My announcement to the agileTeams subscribers should go out mid-day. Then Steps 1-4 of my migration are done!
What’s Next?
I’ve only posted about once a month in agileTeams, so there won’t be much of a change in newsletter frequency. For those of you who already subscribed to agileTeams, the main change will be the incoming email address 🙂. The announcement post covers this.
For anyone subscribing to this main newsletter who isn’t at all interested in agile topics, feel free to un-subscribe from the agile section. You can do this through your Account page. Instructions from the Substack chatbot are below 3. See the detailed advice on this Support page or ask the Substack chatbot if you need help!
Postscript
I got additional suggestions from the Substack support chatbot after this post went out. I’ve added them to the End Notes below 4. 20/20 hindsight: Removing the old Subscribe links in the posts before migrating them would have cut the editing work in half.
On carefully reviewing the content of the migrated posts this afternoon, lots of key content elements are missing. I will report this as a bug to Substack. The older posts I originally imported from WordPress are fine, because that content never had these post features. But all of the new posts I had created in Substack this year with these features were incomplete!
Subtitles
Metadata tags configured in the post settings
Embedded links to my other agileTeams posts (the URLs aren’t even there; they are just missing)
Embedded references to other people or publications created via @. (these are insidious; they are super hard to find via proofreading because the people and publication names aren’t even there)
End Notes (this is a big deal for my content; I use lots of references)
Audio voiceovers (I only had one to migrate. I was able to go into edit mode on the original post, download the MP3 file there, and re-embed it in the new post.)
Standard Substack buttons like ‘Subscribe’ or ‘Comment’ still point to the original newsletter. They have to be deleted and replaced with buttons for the new newsletter.
Post statistics (not entirely unexpected) - view counts on the migrated posts are reset to zero and they have no history.
To my original question about whether having a section or a separate newsletter is a one-way or two-way door: the door definitely needs some WD-40 and hinge tightening. Hopefully these migration issues can be fixed quickly.
End Notes
In the chat transcripts below,
my questions and comments are in a callout like this,
and the chatbot responses are in italics.
Substack chatbot transcript on guidance on merging newsletters
I have two newsletters and I want to move everything from one into a section on the other. What is the best way to do that?
To consolidate your newsletters into one by moving content from one newsletter into a section of another, you can follow these steps:
1. Create a New Section: First, ensure that the newsletter where you want to add content has a section created for this purpose. You can do this by going to your publication's settings, clicking on 'Sections' in the left navigation bar, and then selecting "Add section."
2. Copy Content: Manually copy the posts from the original newsletter to the new section in the other newsletter. Currently, Substack doesn't support automatic transfer of posts between newsletters or sections, so this step will need to be done manually.
3. Inform Your Subscribers: Communicate with your subscribers about the change. Let them know where they can find the content going forward and encourage them to subscribe to the new section if necessary.
4. Redirect Subscribers: If possible, encourage subscribers from the original newsletter to subscribe to the section in the other newsletter. You can send them a direct link to subscribe to the new section.
5. Adjust Settings: Make sure to adjust the subscriber settings in the new section to ensure that all intended subscribers have access to it. You can manage this in the section's settings under 'Subscriber settings'.
This process involves a few manual steps, but it will help you streamline your content under a single newsletter effectively.
For Step 2, Copy Content, there's no way to export my posts and then import them?? I can import from Wordpress, but not from my other Substack?
You're correct that while Substack allows importing content from platforms like WordPress, there isn't a direct feature to import posts between Substack newsletters. However, you can still transfer your posts between Substack accounts by exporting and then importing them manually:
1. Export Posts: From your original Substack newsletter, go to the 'Settings' page, select 'Exports' from the left navigation bar, and then click on "Create new export." This will generate a .zip file containing your posts (read more).
2. Import Posts: Log into the Substack account where you want to add the posts. Navigate to the 'Settings' page, select 'Import' from the left navigation bar, and upload the .zip file you exported from your other account. Follow the prompts to complete the import process.
This method will help you move your content without needing to manually copy and paste each post.
ok, that's what I needed to know - thank you.
You're welcome! If you have any more questions or need further assistance as you go through the process, feel free to reach out. Happy publishing!
Substack chatbot transcript on the Import dialog Update option
On the Import page, what is the meaning of "Update existing posts"?
The "Update existing posts" option on the Import page is used when you are importing posts that might already exist in your Substack publication. This feature allows you to update the content of posts that are already published on your Substack if they have been modified in the source from which you are importing.
Here’s how it works:
- If you select "Update existing posts," the importer will check for posts that match by title or other identifying criteria.
- If a match is found, the existing post on your Substack will be updated with the new content from the import file, rather than creating a duplicate post.
This is particularly useful if you've made changes to your posts on another platform and want those changes reflected in your Substack publication without having to manually update each post.
Substack chatbot instructions for unsubscribing from a section
1. Unsubscribe via Email:
Scroll to the bottom of any email they've received from your newsletter.
Click on the "Unsubscribe" link.
They will be directed to a page where they can manage their subscriptions. Here, they can choose to unsubscribe from individual sections without unsubscribing from the entire newsletter.
2. Unsubscribe via Substack Account:
Log into their Substack account and navigate to their account settings.
Go to the 'Subscriptions' section and select your publication.
They will see options to manage their subscriptions to different sections. Here, they can toggle off the sections they no longer wish to receive updates from.
Substack chatbot transcript on settings changes in the sunsetted newsletter
what settings changes should I make to a newsletter than I am sunsetting, but don't want to delete?
For sunsetting a newsletter without deleting it, you can make a few adjustments to ensure it remains accessible but doesn't actively engage in new subscriber activities:
1. Update your newsletter settings to remove any prompts for new subscriptions. This can be done by customizing the welcome message and removing subscription links from your posts and homepage.
2. Post a final update in your newsletter explaining that the newsletter will no longer be active, but past content will remain accessible for historical reference.
3. Adjust the visibility settings of your sections or posts to ensure that they are still accessible to existing subscribers or the public, depending on your preference.
4. Consider archiving sections that you do not want new readers to access, while keeping the main newsletter available for viewing.
These steps will help maintain the integrity of your content while respecting the interests of your current audience. If you need more detailed guidance on adjusting specific settings, feel free to ask!