Newsletter and Paywall Strategy

Last updated: 2026-02-09

Purpose

Define a practical path from fully public blog content to a member/premium access model without replatforming away from Wagtail.

Current decision

  • Keep Wagtail/Django as the core platform.
  • Use a hybrid model:
  • Newsletter provider for free/member tier.
  • Patreon-first for premium tier.
  • Keep architecture Stripe-ready for a later migration if conversion control becomes the priority.

Why this approach

  • Faster launch and validation of paid demand.
  • Lower initial billing/compliance implementation cost.
  • Preserves future flexibility by isolating entitlement logic behind a provider abstraction.

Access model

  • public: full access for everyone.
  • member: full access for active newsletter members.
  • premium: full access for active Patreon/Stripe premium users.
  • Non-entitled users: preview + CTA.

Planned interfaces

  • POST /newsletter/subscribe
  • POST /webhooks/newsletter/<provider>
  • GET /members/login
  • POST /webhooks/patreon
  • POST /webhooks/stripe (future)
  • GET /blog/<slug>/ returns full or preview content based on entitlement

Planned data model additions

  • MemberProfile
  • email
  • newsletter_status (pending|active|unsubscribed|bounced)
  • paywall_provider (none|patreon|stripe)
  • entitlement_tier (free|member|premium)
  • provider IDs + audit timestamps
  • BlogPage
  • access_tier (public|member|premium)
  • preview_mode (none|excerpt|first_n_blocks)
  • is_paid_override

Rollout phases

  1. Foundation

  2. Add entitlement contract and page-level access metadata.

  3. Patreon-first premium

  4. Add Patreon webhook/OAuth entitlement sync.

  5. Add premium CTA and guard logic.

  6. Newsletter member sync

  7. Integrate provider (default recommendation: Buttondown).

  8. Add subscribe and webhook reconciliation flows.

  9. Stripe expansion (optional)

  10. Implement Stripe billing lifecycle and webhooks without rewriting access control logic.

Test scenarios

  • Anonymous user receives previews for member/premium content.
  • Member can access member content but not premium content.
  • Premium user can access premium content.
  • Access revokes correctly on unsubscribe/cancel events.
  • Webhook processing is idempotent.
  • Section-level and post-level override precedence is deterministic.

Open implementation notes

  • This document is a strategy reference; endpoints/models above are planned, not fully implemented yet.
  • Keep final contracts in sync with code once implementation starts.
  • Buttondown API: https://docs.buttondown.com/api-introduction
  • Patreon API docs: https://docs.patreon.com/
  • Stripe billing docs: https://docs.stripe.com/billing
  • Wagtail privacy docs: https://docs.wagtail.org/en/stable/topics/privacy.html