Riverside, the maker of video and podcast recording tools, has introduced a new capability that lets users convert their existing recordings into newsletters and send them directly from within the app. The company is not positioning this as a direct bid to replace established newsletter platforms such as Mailchimp, Substack, Beehiiv, or Ghost; rather, it aims to help creators repurpose the spoken content they already produce.
Riverside co-founder and CEO Nadav Keyson told TechCrunch: “Substack and Beehiiv start you at a blank page. But our creators and business customers are already producing rich, information-dense spoken content on Riverside. For most people, speaking is easier and more natural than writing from scratch, and the ideas are already there, in the conversation. So instead of asking them to start over in a separate tool, we help them turn a recording they’ve already made into newsletter-ready content with far less effort.”
What the update includes
- Users can convert videos or podcasts into newsletters using Riverside’s AI, or compose and send newsletters from scratch inside the app without using the AI conversion feature.
- The recording suite gains multi-camera support and the ability to invite remote guests into recordings.
New AI features
Riverside added several AI-driven capabilities:
- An assistant that can draft a first cut of a recording as soon as it is finished.
- Tools to generate hooks and content optimized for various social media platforms.
- An AI video enhancement function, trained on conversational video podcasts, that the company says can improve lighting, depth and sharpness.
Why it matters
These additions make it easier for creators to repurpose spoken material across formats and channels with less manual work. By enabling newsletter creation from existing recordings and integrating sending functionality into the app, Riverside helps users publish faster and expand how they distribute content.
Riverside — which has raised over $60 million in funding — joins other platforms that have been branching into adjacent publishing formats to diversify or grow revenue streams. For example, Substack launched a built-in recording studio in March, Beehiiv entered podcasting in April, and Mastodon announced in June that it will allow users to publish posts as newsletters.
The updates focus on streamlining workflows and boosting reuse of content rather than directly supplanting dedicated newsletter services.
