Monitor Medium Publications and Newsletter Feeds via API

Readers follow collections—Towards Data Science, niche newsletters—not just individual writers. Products that only track users miss half the signal.

Tool outcome: A publication watcher config + cron that logs new article_id rows per collection.

Playbook (four steps)

GET /publication/id_for/{slug} → publication_id
GET /publication/{id} → directory metadata (name, followers, description)
GET /publication/{id}/articles on a schedule → syndication feed
GET /publication/{id}/newsletter → signup UX copy, cadence hints

Pair with content aggregator patterns for one normalized table.

Resolve slug once

const API = 'https://api.zenndra.com';
const headers = { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.ZENNDRA_API_KEY}` };

async function resolvePublication(slug) {
  const res = await fetch(`${API}/publication/id_for/${encodeURIComponent(slug)}`, { headers });
  const { publication_id } = await res.json();
  return publication_id;
}

const pubId = await resolvePublication('towards-data-science');

Poll for new stories

async function pollPublication(publicationId, knownIds) {
  const res = await fetch(`${API}/publication/${publicationId}/articles`, { headers });
  const { articles } = await res.json();
  const fresh = (articles ?? []).filter((a) => !knownIds.has(a.id));
  fresh.forEach((a) => knownIds.add(a.id));
  return fresh; // enqueue webhooks, Slack, email digest
}