InboxReads Newsletter Directory Scraper

Scrape the InboxReads cross-platform newsletter directory. InboxReads indexes 3,300+ newsletters from Substack, beehiiv, Ghost, Mailchimp, and other platforms — categorized by ~700 topics with engagement data. This actor collects newsletter name, description, topics, pricing model, subscriber count, open rate, click rate, signup URL, and platform inference for every newsletter in the directory.

What you get

Each record contains:

Field	Description
newsletter_slug	URL slug for the newsletter on InboxReads (e.g. tldr)
newsletter_name	Display name
inboxreads_url	Full InboxReads URL for this newsletter
signup_url	The newsletter's own website URL (the lead)
description	Newsletter description
subscribers	Subscriber count (null if locked behind InboxReads Pro)
open_rate	Open rate percentage (null if locked)
click_rate	Click rate percentage (null if locked)
frequency	Send frequency: daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly
pricing_model	free or paid
primary_category	Primary topic category
tags	All topic tags
rating	InboxReads community ranking (lower = higher ranked)
platform_guess	Inferred platform: substack, beehiiv, ghost, mailchimp, convertkit, buttondown, or other
scraped_at	ISO 8601 scrape timestamp

Use cases

• Newsletter discovery: Find relevant newsletters by topic for sponsorship, partnership, or competitive research
• Lead generation: Build a filtered list of newsletters with their direct signup URLs for outreach
• Media buying: Identify newsletters by category, pricing model, and audience size for ad placement
• Creator intelligence: Map the newsletter landscape across platforms for market analysis

How it works

1. Parses the InboxReads sitemap to enumerate all newsletter pages (~3,300 newsletters)
2. Calls the InboxReads JSON API once per newsletter to retrieve structured data
3. Optionally filters results by topic before saving

No proxy or login required — InboxReads is publicly accessible without authentication.

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
maxItems	integer	10	Maximum number of newsletters to return. Set to 0 for all newsletters.
topicFilter	string	(empty)	Filter by topic slug (e.g. tech, marketing, ai, finance). Leave blank for all topics.

Example: Tech newsletters only

{
  "maxItems": 500,
  "topicFilter": "tech"
}

Example: Full directory scrape

{
  "maxItems": 0,
  "topicFilter": ""
}

Notes on subscriber/engagement data

InboxReads only exposes subscriber count, open rate, and click rate for newsletter owners who have claimed and verified their InboxReads listing (InboxReads Pro). These fields will be null for most newsletters — this is a limitation of the source data, not a scraper defect.

The signup_url field is populated from the newsletter's featured issue link when available. Newsletters without a featured issue will have a null signup URL.