Maritime Intelligence Brief · Verihelm / Dryad Global

MIB — the complete guide

Everything about the Maritime Intelligence Brief in one place: how the free & paid model works, how readers subscribe and get access, and — step by step — how the team produces a weekly edition. Plain English throughout.

1 · The model 2 · Access & subscriptions 3 · Producing an edition 4 · Operations & go-live

Admin repository

Resources & links

Everything that makes an edition. Bookmark this page.

Asset	Where
Master sheet (regional feed)	open the Google Sheet
Sync script	Sheet ▸ Extensions ▸ Apps Script (`mib-hubdb-sync.gs`)
MIB TEMPLATE PAID — clone this (clone weekly to start an edition)	open in HubSpot
MIB TEMPLATE FREE — auto-seeded (the Create-free-summary button clones this — don’t clone it yourself)	open in HubSpot
HubDB table — regions	MIB · Regional MSI feed
Paid render template	Design Manager ▸ `Verihelm_Theme/templates/verihelm-mib-blog-post.html`
Blogs	MIB Paid `/en/subscriber` (193373100713) · MIB Free `/maritime-intelligence-brief` (215219531370)

See it in action

A worked example edition

A complete demo edition, built by following the exact weekly process. Open it to see a finished paid edition, its regional feed, and the matching free summary.

Paid — full edition

MIB DEMO PAID

Graphic band (from the Featured Image), Weekly Analysis, and the regional feed — 5 regions, with Cyber empty to show auto-hide.

▶ View rendered · edit in HubSpot

Free — summary

MIB DEMO FREE

The short overview + "this week examines" list + subscribe button, sharing the same graphic.

▶ View rendered · edit in HubSpot

🛠️

How it was built (the weekly process): cloned MIB TEMPLATE PAID → set the Featured Image + PDF + Weekly Analysis → added the source links in the sheet and Pushed → clicked Create free summary and wrote the overview. Regions live in the HubDB table under edition key mib-demo. (Reference only — kept as drafts.)

Part 1

The model — what MIB is

1.1 The idea in one minute

Every week there is one Maritime Intelligence Brief, published in two versions from the same reporting:

Free · public

The summary

A short teaser of the week's headline risks. Open to everyone, appears in Google, and points readers at subscribing.

Paid · members only

The full edition

The complete brief — region-by-region detail, source-traced links, the weekly graphic & PDF, and the Weekly Analysis. Behind a login.

Paying members also get the archive — every past full edition, searchable in one place. That back-catalogue is a core part of what they pay for.

1.2 Where each version lives

Three separate publications on the same site, each with one job.

Publication	Address	What's on it	Who reads it
Channel 16	channel16… (home)	General maritime news	Everyone · in Google
MIB — Free	/maritime-intelligence-brief	Weekly summaries	Everyone · in Google
MIB — Paid	/en/subscriber	Full editions + archive	Members only

🔒

The paid blog is set to members only — anyone not logged in as a paid member hits a sign-in wall, not the content.

📧

The free blog has its own subscription. Readers can subscribe to the MIB Free blog to get only MIB summaries — separate from Channel 16's general news. Publishing a free summary sends an instant notification email to those subscribers (right cadence for a weekly product). The paid blog has no public subscribe form — paid readers get access through membership, not a blog subscription.

1.3 What readers see

A non-member

• Reads the free summary, openly and in search.
• Sees an "Unlock the full brief" prompt → subscribe / checkout.
• Opening a full edition or the archive → a sign-in wall.

A paying member

• Logs in once; full editions then open normally.
• Reads the complete weekly brief.
• Browses & searches the archive of past editions.

🧭

The rule that avoids dead-ends: members-only pages are only for people who already have access. Anyone who needs to get or restore access is always sent to subscribe → checkout, never to a locked page.

Part 2

Access & subscriptions

2.1 Signing up & paying

Payment runs through HubSpot Commerce and Stripe — one clean path.

Click subscribe

From a free brief, an email, or the pricing page.

→

Stripe checkout

Pay via the secure HubSpot payment link.

→

Account created

HubSpot records the contact & payment.

→

Access granted

Marked paid, emailed a welcome + how to log in.

2.2 How access is managed

It all hinges on one contact field — mib_tier (free or paid). Workflows keep it correct automatically.

When…	The automation…	The reader gets…
Someone pays	Sets `paid` + adds to the members list	Welcome email + instant access
A payment fails	Starts a grace period + reminder	A "please update payment" nudge, not an instant cut-off
They cancel / don't recover	Sets back to `free` + removes access	A friendly "dropped to the free brief" email with re-subscribe link

The MIB Paid Members list is simply everyone whose mib_tier is paid. That list is the key to the paid blog — being on it opens the members-only content. Because it updates itself from the field, access follows payment with no manual admin.

Part 3

Producing a weekly edition

3.1 An edition lives in two places

Surface	What you author there
The blog post (paid blog)	Edition graphic + PDF, the Weekly Analysis, the advisory, the Read More teaser cut.
The master sheet → HubDB	The regional MSI feed — source-traced links, grouped by region.

The post pulls its regional cards from HubDB automatically, matched by an edition key. You never hand-build the cards — you fill a spreadsheet and press a button.

✍️

The free summary is written in the free post — not the paid one. It's a distinct, short overview (headline theatres + a "this week examines" list), not a shortened copy of the full edition. You don't write it inside the paid post. Instead, one click (Create free summary) creates a free-blog draft pre-filled with the graphic + a subscribe button + a placeholder, and you write the short summary directly in that draft. The paid post stays clean; the free summary is fully visible and editable where it lives.

🔁

What “Create free summary” actually does: it clones the “MIB TEMPLATE FREE” post (copies its structure + subscribe button) and the paid post’s featured image into a new dated free draft — you never clone the free template yourself. Prerequisite: create the paid edition post first (the button reads its slug + featured image). It won’t duplicate — if a free draft for that edition already exists, it leaves it alone. To change the default wording/look of every future free draft, edit MIB TEMPLATE FREE.

3.2 One-time setup (the connection)

Done once per person who will push. If the sheet already has a HubDB menu (in the Google Sheet menu bar, after “Help”) and Test connection is green, skip this.

💡

Where “Menu ▸ HubDB” points: the script adds a HubDB menu to this Google Sheet’s menu bar (after “Help”) — that’s what these steps mean by “Menu ▸ HubDB”. It’s separate from HubSpot’s own HubDB database, which is just where the regions are stored.

Create the HubSpot key.
Settings ▸ Integrations ▸ Private Apps (or the service-key path) ▸ create ▸ Scopes: tick HubDB (read & write) ▸ copy the token (pat-…).
Install the script.
Master sheet ▸ Extensions ▸ Apps Script ▸ paste mib-hubdb-sync.gs ▸ Save ▸ reload. A HubDB menu appears in the Google Sheet menu bar (after “Help”).
Set the token.
In the sheet, Menu ▸ HubDB ▸ Set HubSpot token… ▸ paste. It's stored in the script, never in a cell.
Test it.
In the sheet, Menu ▸ HubDB ▸ ✓ Test connection → green "Connected ✓" = ready.

🔒

Token = password. Never put it in a cell, email, or chat. If exposed, rotate it (app's Auth tab ▸ Rotate) and set the new one.

3.3 The weekly routine

Clone the standard.
In the paid blog, clone "MIB TEMPLATE PAID". Rename it and set the slug to mib-YYYY-MM-DD.
Fill it in — all click-based.
Graphic → set the Featured Image (picker). PDF → select the "Download… (PDF)" button and use the link tool → Link to a file. Weekly Analysis → type. Move the Read More separator if needed. No source code.
Set the edition key.
Sheet ▸ ① Weekly feed tab, cell B3: type the same slug tail, e.g. mib-2026-07-07. Must match exactly.
Add the sources.
Each link: paste the Source URL in column A, pick the Region from the dropdown. Regions with no news → leave empty.
Auto-fill.
In the sheet, Menu ▸ HubDB ▸ Fill headlines & dates. Review — type in any blank dates by hand.
Push.
In the sheet, Menu ▸ HubDB ▸ Push this edition. Confirm the dialog. It sends the regions to HubSpot, replacing just this edition's rows.
Make the free summary.
In the sheet, Menu ▸ HubDB ▸ Create free summary. It creates a free-blog draft (graphic + subscribe button + placeholder). Write the short summary in that free draft.
Check & publish both.
Open the paid post — region cards render. When it's right, publish the paid edition and the free summary (publishing the free post notifies MIB Free subscribers).

3.4 Golden rules

⚠

Edition key must match the post slug tail. B3 = the last part of the post's URL. Mismatch → the post shows no regions.

⚠

Don't rename the ① Weekly feed tab, its column headers, or the HubDB table. The sync matches them by name.

⚠

Never "Reset / Overwrite" the HubDB table. The push only replaces one edition. A reset would wipe the whole searchable archive.

🏷️

Naming: table label AREA · Purpose; edition key & slug mib-YYYY-MM-DD. Keeps tables findable (HubDB has no folders).

3.5 What to expect

✅

Empty regions vanish. No rows for a region → it doesn't show. To mark one deliberately quiet, add a row headed "No significant activity reported this week." with no URL.

✅

Re-pushing is safe. Push again after edits — it replaces this edition cleanly, no duplicates, never touching other editions.

✅

Read More is a teaser, not the paywall. It only sets how much shows on the archive list. Access is the membership gate.

ℹ️

Some dates won't auto-fill. Paywalled / no-metadata sites come up blank — type those in. Headlines succeed far more often than dates.

3.6 Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause & fix
No HubDB menu (in the sheet)	Script not installed / sheet not reloaded. Paste script ▸ Save ▸ reload. Still missing → run `onOpen` once from the editor and Allow.
Test connection 401	Token wrong/blank/rotated. Re-copy ▸ Set HubSpot token… again.
Test connection 403	Missing scope. Add HubDB (read & write) ▸ save ▸ test again.
Post shows no regions	Edition-key mismatch. Make `B3` exactly the post slug tail ▸ push again.
Date looks like `Sat Jun 06 2026…`	Old script. Re-paste the latest `mib-hubdb-sync.gs`.
Push says "Unknown region"	A Region isn't a table option. Use the dropdown; don't free-type.

Part 4

Operations & go-live

4.1 Testing status

Confirmed

●
The paid content is locked — logged-out readers hit the sign-in wall, not the brief.
●
Free blogs public & in search; paid blog isn't leaking to Google or feeds.
●
The production pipeline works end to end — sheet → fill → push → HubDB → renders on the post (idempotent, archive-safe, empty regions collapse).

Still to do before go-live

○
Full access test: a test purchase (Stripe test card) → member granted, emailed, can read.
○
Cancel / lapse test: access removed + "dropped to free" email fires.
○
Fix two automated emails whose links currently 404 before switching them on.

🛡️

The payment & access workflows are built but deliberately switched off until a test purchase is signed off — so no real subscriber is wrongly granted or cut off.

4.2 Go-live (cutover)

A short, ordered, reversible sequence. Nothing affecting live readers switches until this day.

#	Step	Why the order
1	Confirm the paid blog is locked and has real editions	Don't open the doors before the room is furnished and the lock works
2	Fix & repoint every button/email link to its live page	No subscriber lands on a broken link
3	Point "subscribe" at the live checkout	New sign-ups now flow to real payment
4	Switch on the payment & access automations	Only after the test purchase passes
5	Final live check (a real login sees the full edition; a non-member is walled)	Proves the loop before announcing
6	Retire the old bits (legacy access groups, manual mailout, unused lists)	Last, once nothing depends on them

Every step is reversible. The legacy archive is left in place untouched — it isn't part of the new paid product.

4.3 Reference

Thing	Value
Paid blog	channel16.dryadglobal.com/en/subscriber
Post slug / edition key	mib-YYYY-MM-DD
Access field / members list	mib_tier = paid
HubDB table	MIB · Regional MSI feed (id 355219068)
Regions	Europe · Middle East · Africa · Asia & Australia · Americas · Cyber
Sync script / menu	mib-hubdb-sync.gs
Menu actions	✓ Test connection · Fill headlines & dates · Push this edition · Set token

MIB — complete guide · Verihelm / Dryad Global (HubSpot portal 4795492). Model, subscriptions, weekly production, and go-live. Keep the edition key and the tab / column / table names stable; everything else is safe to edit.