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How It All Connects: Authors, Folders, Editions, Broadcasts, and Audiences

Maps the core objects in the platform and shows how they relate to one another.

In short​

A handful of objects do most of the work in the platform. An Author is a person who signs in and builds communications. An Edition is the email an Author designs. Editions live inside a Folder (Project Folder), which keeps related work organized and controls who can see it. When an Edition is sent to subscribers, that send is a Broadcast. The people who receive it come from an audience — a list or segment of subscribers.

Why it matters​

Understanding these relationships helps you find your work, share it with the right teammates, and read your reports correctly. For example, permissions and access are usually managed at the Folder level, so where you put an Edition affects who can collaborate on it. And because a single Edition can be sent more than once, your metrics are tracked per Broadcast rather than per Edition — which matters when you compare results.

How it works​

The objects nest and connect like this:

  • Author → Folder → Edition. Authors work inside Folders. Each Folder holds many Editions; each Edition belongs to one Folder.
  • Edition → Broadcast. Sending an Edition creates a Broadcast. The same Edition can be sent as several Broadcasts (for example, an initial send and a resend to non-openers).
  • Broadcast → audience → subscribers. Every Broadcast targets an audience, and that audience resolves to individual subscribers who receive and interact with the message.

A simple example: an Author opens the "Newsletters" Folder, builds the "July Update" Edition, then sends it to the "Active Customers" audience. That send is one Broadcast with its own open, click, and delivery metrics. A week later they resend the same Edition to people who didn't open it — a second Broadcast, tracked separately.

Interactive content, personalization tokens, and reporting all hang off these objects: tokens personalize an Edition per subscriber, and metrics roll up from Broadcasts.

Canonical terms: Author, Edition, Folder (Project Folder), Broadcast. See the Glossary.