ChatGPT answers, unedited

Yes. For a media site with heavy newsletter/list sending, I would not use normal hosted email (Google Workspace, Fastmail, Microsoft 365) as the mailing-list sender. Those services are designed primarily for person-to-person/business mail and impose sending limits; Fastmail explicitly says it is not a bulk email sending service. Fastmail Google Support

The better architecture is:

• Hosted inboxes: Google Workspace, Fastmail, Microsoft 365, etc.
• Newsletter/mailing-list delivery: a dedicated email service using your domain.
• Website/transactional mail: ideally a separate sending stream/subdomain.

Services I'd look at

For a media publication, I'd probably start with SendGrid, Mailgun, or Amazon SES, rather than trying to make your regular mailbox provider do the newsletter delivery. A recent 2026 comparison similarly puts SES toward the high-volume/technical end, SendGrid toward large developer-heavy operations, Brevo toward an all-in-one marketing setup, and Postmark toward transactional mail. SenderReputation.org

The domain setup matters more than the provider

For example, if your publication is:

example.com

I'd consider:

• you@example.com → Google Workspace/Fastmail/etc.
• news@example.com → newsletter sender
• bounce.example.com → bounce/return infrastructure
• potentially email.example.com or news.example.com → dedicated mailing infrastructure

Then configure SPF, DKIM and DMARC correctly. Google specifically recommends consistent sending rates, gradual volume increases, monitoring spam rates/reputation, and using Postmaster Tools for high-volume Gmail delivery. Google Support

This separation is particularly useful for a media company because a newsletter reputation problem shouldn't unnecessarily damage the reputation of your staff's normal @example.com correspondence.

One important distinction

If by "mailing list" you mean a newsletter to 50,000–5 million subscribers, that's one problem.

If you mean a discussion list, where subscribers can email list@example.com and the system redistributes each message to everyone, that's a different category. For that I'd look at a hosted mailing-list platform rather than SendGrid/SES alone.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/month (e.g. 100k subscribers × 1 newsletter/day), I can recommend the specific architecture and provider I'd use, including approximate cost.

Yes. But for a media site with a large newsletter, I would not use a conventional hosted mailbox provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail, etc.) as the actual newsletter sender. Those systems are optimized for person-to-person email, and their bulk-sending restrictions can hurt you. For example, Microsoft is enforcing a 2,000 external-recipient/24-hour limit for Exchange Online, while Fastmail explicitly says it is not a bulk email sending service. Microsoft Download Center Fastmail

What you probably want is a platform that combines custom-domain mailboxes + dedicated/high-volume sending infrastructure + newsletter management.

The interesting options

• jetemail.com — Probably the closest match to what you're describing. It offers mailboxes, custom domains, SMTP/API sending, marketing/newsletter functionality, transactional email, inbound filtering, and deliverability tooling in one platform. It specifically advertises unlimited sending based on subscriber count rather than number of messages. JetEmail
• letmesend.email — Another newer platform explicitly designed around combining mailboxes + marketing/broadcast + transactional email + custom domains. It advertises automated warm-up, IP rotation, and deliverability monitoring. LetMeSend.Email
• zoho.com — More established, but I'd treat this as two systems: Zoho Mail for employee mailboxes and Zoho Campaigns for newsletters. Zoho explicitly distinguishes business email from marketing/bulk email and directs bulk senders to Campaigns. Zoho

What I'd recommend for a media site

If you're sending, say, 50,000–5 million newsletter emails/month, I'd architect it like this:

Your domain
→ editor@yourdomain.com / sales@yourdomain.com → hosted mailbox
→ newsletter@yourdomain.com → dedicated marketing/broadcast infrastructure
→ noreply@yourdomain.com → transactional infrastructure

And make sure the domain has properly configured:

• SPF
• DKIM
• DMARC
• dedicated/subdomain sending identity
• bounce processing
• one-click unsubscribe
• suppression lists
• reputation monitoring
• gradual IP/domain warm-up

The key point is don't mix your newsroom's normal correspondence reputation with millions of newsletter messages. Ideally I'd use something like news.yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com as the sending domain/subdomain while keeping your primary domain for human correspondence.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 50k, 500k, 5M) and how often you send, I can narrow this down to the 3–4 best platforms and compare pricing, deliverability, custom-domain setup, mailbox hosting, and API/newsletter features.

Yes. For a media site with heavy newsletter/list sending, I’d separate “hosting your normal mailboxes” from “sending bulk email.”

My top choices

• Amazon SES — probably the best fit if volume is very high and you have some technical capability. It is built for high-volume transactional and marketing/newsletter sending, supports your own domain, DKIM/DMARC, and offers managed dedicated IPs that automatically warm and scale. Amazon Web Services, Inc. AWS Documentation

aws.amazon.com

• SendGrid — easier operationally than SES and designed specifically around email delivery, marketing campaigns, domain authentication, analytics, etc. I'd consider it if you want a more turnkey system.
• Mailgun — particularly good if the site/application itself needs to send lots of email, with an API-first approach. Less attractive if your main requirement is a sophisticated editorial newsletter operation.
• Mailchimp / similar ESPs — better if your priority is nontechnical newsletter management: editors create campaigns, segmentation, templates, automation, subscriber management, etc. They're generally more expensive at large list sizes.

For your particular use case

If you're talking about something like a media publication sending 100k–millions of newsletter emails, I'd seriously consider:

Your domain
→ news.yourdomain.com / mail.yourdomain.com for sending
→ Amazon SES or another ESP
→ dedicated/managed sending infrastructure
→ your site's CMS/subscriber database
→ proper SPF + DKIM + DMARC + bounce/complaint handling

SES specifically lets you configure a custom MAIL FROM domain and authenticate it with SPF/DKIM so the sending infrastructure is tied properly to a domain you control. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

One important point: a dedicated IP isn't automatically better deliverability. At substantial volume, it can be useful because you control the IP reputation, but it needs proper warm-up and consistent sending. SES's managed dedicated IP system now handles much of that automatically. AWS Documentation AWS Documentation

If by “hosted email” you mean you also want actual inboxes like editor@yourdomain.com, that's a separate service (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail, etc.). I would not use your ordinary mailbox provider to send a huge publication newsletter.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and explain the likely cost and deliverability tradeoffs.

Yes. For a media site with heavy newsletter/list sending, I would not use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 as the actual mailing engine. Both explicitly constrain bulk sending; Microsoft recommends dedicated bulk-email providers for legitimate newsletters. learn.microsoft.com

A good architecture is:

Your domain

• you@yourpublication.com → normal hosted mailbox (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail, etc.)
• newsletter@yourpublication.com → bulk sending provider
• Ideally use a sending subdomain such as news.yourpublication.com or mail.yourpublication.com

Providers I'd look at

Mailgun is particularly interesting for your use case. You can authenticate your own domain with SPF/DKIM, send through your own domain, batch-send up to 1,000 personalized messages per API call, and isolate sending domains/reputation. help.mailgun.com

The important distinction is that the provider doesn't magically give you good deliverability. Your domain reputation and sending practices matter enormously. Gmail, for example, treats senders reaching ~5,000 Gmail recipients/day as bulk senders and requires SPF, DKIM, DMARC, alignment, one-click unsubscribe for marketing mail, and low spam rates. support.google.com

What I'd do for a media publication

I'd probably set it up like:

yourpublication.com
│
├── Google Workspace / Microsoft 365
│   ├── editor@yourpublication.com
│   ├── staff@yourpublication.com
│   └── hello@yourpublication.com
│
└── news.yourpublication.com
    └── Mailgun / SES / SendGrid
        ├── newsletter
        ├── daily digest
        └── automated site emails

That gives the newsletter its own sending reputation without jeopardizing your staff's ordinary email reputation.

If you're talking about tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of subscribers, I'd narrow the choice differently. Tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week, and whether you need a visual newsletter editor or just an API/SMTP service. I can then recommend the best 2–3 setups and approximate costs.

Yes. For a media site with large newsletter/list sends, I’d look at an email-sending platform rather than traditional “hosted mailbox” providers.

My shortlist:

What I'd choose for your use case

If you're sending hundreds of thousands to millions of emails/month: I'd strongly consider Amazon SES with a dedicated sending setup. SES now has managed dedicated IPs that automatically handle IP allocation, scaling and ISP-specific warmup. docs.aws.amazon.comdocs.aws.amazon.com

That's particularly attractive for a media site because you can separate reputations—for example:

• news.yourdomain.com → newsletters
• mail.yourdomain.com → transactional/account email
• potentially separate IP pools for different types of mail

SES supports dedicated IP pools specifically to isolate sender reputation between different email programs. docs.aws.amazon.com

If you want something much easier to operate: Postmark is interesting. It now supports broadcast email/newsletters and deliberately separates broadcast and transactional traffic onto different infrastructure/IPs, which is exactly the kind of separation you want for a media business. postmarkapp.com

One important distinction

If by “hosted email” you mean:

“I want editor@mydomain.com to be a normal inbox and I want to send 500k newsletters from my domain”

I would not use one service for both.

I'd do something like:

Google Workspace / Microsoft 365
→ normal human mailboxes (editor@, sales@, etc.)

SES / Postmark / Mailgun
→ bulk newsletter sending (newsletter@, news@, etc.)

And configure SPF + DKIM + DMARC, with a dedicated sending subdomain such as news.example.com. This gives you much better control over reputation and keeps a newsletter problem from damaging your ordinary corporate mail.

Also, don't assume a dedicated IP automatically means better inbox placement. A new dedicated IP needs to be warmed up and its reputation maintained; SES explicitly notes that you're still responsible for bounce/complaint rates and reputation even with managed dedicated IPs. docs.aws.amazon.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 50k/day, 500k/day, 5M/month), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 providers and the architecture I'd use for your domain.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter audience, you usually want two separate things:

1. Hosted mailbox/email service for addresses on your domain (e.g. editor@yoursite.com, support@yoursite.com)
2. High-volume newsletter sending platform that protects deliverability (SPF/DKIM/DMARC, dedicated/shared IP reputation, bounce handling, unsubscribe compliance)

Trying to run a 500k+ subscriber newsletter directly through normal mailbox hosting (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.) is usually a mistake.

Good options:

For a serious media operation, a common architecture is:

• Domain email hosting:
  • Google Workspace or Microsoft 365
  • Handles human mailboxes only.

• Newsletter engine:
  • beehiiv, PostUp, or a custom stack using SES/SendGrid.
  • Sends from something like newsletter@yourdomain.com.

• DNS setup:
  • SPF
  • DKIM
  • DMARC
  • custom tracking domain
  • sometimes BIMI

For heavy sending (hundreds of thousands or millions/day), I would prioritize:

• dedicated IP option
• sender reputation monitoring
• automatic bounce/complaint suppression
• engagement-based segmentation
• inbox placement testing
• human deliverability support

If you tell me roughly:

• subscriber count (10k / 100k / 1M+)
• sends per day/week
• CMS (WordPress, Ghost, custom, etc.)
• whether you need paid subscriptions or ads

…I can narrow this down to the best-fit stack.

Yes. If you mean “host the sending infrastructure for my media site, let me send large newsletters from my own domain, and optimize for inbox placement”, you generally want an email service provider (ESP) rather than ordinary hosted mailbox hosting.

My shortlist

For your particular description, I'd look hardest at Mailgun or SendGrid.

Mailgun supports custom sending domains, SMTP/API sending, mailing lists, analytics, dedicated IPs, and reputation management. It specifically recommends separating marketing and transactional traffic onto different domains/subdomains so a big newsletter send doesn't damage transactional mail. www.mailgun.comhelp.mailgun.com

For example, you could structure it as:

• yourdomain.com → your normal website
• mail.yourdomain.com → newsletter/marketing sending
• transactional.yourdomain.com → password resets, alerts, etc.
• editor@yourdomain.com → actual human mailbox through Google Workspace/Microsoft 365/etc.

That separation is very important for a media site. Mailgun explicitly recommends separating bulk marketing from transactional/corporate traffic, and for senders above roughly 50K emails/week recommends considering dedicated IP infrastructure. help.mailgun.com

One important distinction

If by “hosted email” you mean actual inboxes—e.g. editor@yourdomain.com where people log into Gmail/Outlook to read and reply—then I'd use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for that.

If you mean sending your site's newsletters to 100K/500K/millions of subscribers, use an ESP such as Mailgun, SendGrid, or SES. Don't try to send the mailing list through Google Workspace/Microsoft 365.

For a media operation, I'd also want SPF + DKIM + DMARC, a dedicated/subdomain sending identity, bounce/complaint processing, unsubscribe handling, suppression lists, reputation monitoring, and gradual IP/domain warming. Mailgun provides tooling around these areas. www.mailgun.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 50K subscribers, one newsletter/day), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 providers and estimate the monthly cost.

Yes. For a media site with heavy newsletter/list sending, I’d separate mailbox hosting from bulk sending rather than try to have Google Workspace/Microsoft 365 do both.

My shortlist

Amazon SES is particularly interesting for your use case. It supports sending from your own domain and, at high volume, offers managed dedicated IP pools that automatically warm up and scale according to your sending patterns and ISP capacity. docs.aws.amazon.comdocs.aws.amazon.com

The architecture I'd recommend is:

Your domain

• you@yourdomain.com → Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for actual human mail
• newsletter@yourdomain.com → SES/Mailgun/SendGrid for newsletters
• updates@yourdomain.com → bulk/automated mail
• noreply@yourdomain.com → transactional mail

That separation is valuable because you don't want a newsletter deliverability problem damaging the reputation of the IP/domain used for your staff's ordinary email.

For SES specifically, you can also isolate marketing vs. transactional traffic into separate dedicated IP pools. AWS explicitly recommends this type of separation because problems with marketing traffic then don't necessarily affect transactional mail. docs.aws.amazon.com

One important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean "I want one service that gives me mailboxes AND sends 500k+ newsletter emails", that's a somewhat different requirement.

If you mean "I want email infrastructure for my media site, using my own domain, with excellent deliverability for a large mailing list", then I'd strongly consider:

Google Workspace/Microsoft 365 + Amazon SES

or, if you want something much easier to operate:

Google Workspace/Microsoft 365 + Mailgun/SendGrid.

Also, don't assume a dedicated IP automatically means better deliverability. A dedicated IP gives you control over reputation, but you have to warm it up and maintain good bounce/complaint rates. SES's managed option automates much of the warmup/scaling, but AWS explicitly says you still remain responsible for reputation and list hygiene. docs.aws.amazon.com

If you tell me roughly how many emails/month you're sending (e.g. 100k, 1M, 10M) and whether they're newsletter-only or newsletter + transactional, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and compare approximate costs.

Yes. If by “hosted email” you mean a service that both hosts your publication/newsletter and sends large volumes from your own domain, there are several good options. I would not use ordinary business email hosting (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.) for the mailing-list side; bulk newsletter sending should be on a dedicated email platform.

My shortlist

For a media site, I'd look hardest at beehiiv or Ghost.

beehiiv is particularly interesting if your mailing list is a major part of the business. It supports a custom email sending domain and branded links, so your publication can send as something like news@yourdomain.com rather than appearing to originate from the platform. www.beehiiv.com

beehiiv custom-domain documentation

Ghost(Pro) is probably the better fit if your website itself is a publication/CMS and the newsletter is tightly integrated with it. Ghost bulk-sends newsletters using infrastructure optimized for deliverability and allows a custom sending domain on its Publisher plan and above. ghost.orgpublishinghouse.org

Ghost custom sending domains

One important distinction

I'd structure it like:

yourdomain.com → website
mail.yourdomain.com → newsletter sending/authentication
you@yourdomain.com → normal human/business mailbox

Then let the newsletter platform handle the actual bulk delivery.

That separation is useful because sender reputation matters enormously. SPF, DKIM and DMARC need to be correctly configured, and list hygiene and sending behavior matter just as much as the software you choose. publishinghouse.org

For example, Buttondown explicitly recommends a dedicated sending subdomain such as mail.example.com or newsletter.example.com and can manage the sending infrastructure behind that subdomain. docs.buttondown.com

If you're talking really heavy volume

If you're talking hundreds of thousands or millions of emails/month, I'd look beyond a newsletter SaaS and consider Amazon SES, Mailgun, or SendGrid, potentially with a dedicated sending subdomain/IP strategy. That gives you considerably more control, but also puts more responsibility for reputation, throttling, authentication, bounce handling, suppression lists, etc. on you.

For a typical digital media publication with 10k–500k subscribers, though, I'd probably choose beehiiv or Ghost rather than building an SES stack yourself.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 50k subscribers × daily newsletter), I can narrow it down to the best 2–3 options and compare pricing, sending limits, domain reputation/warm-up, Gmail/Yahoo deliverability, and migration.

Yes. For a media site/newsletter business sending large mailing lists from your own domain, I’d look at dedicated email-sending infrastructure rather than ordinary hosted inbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

My top choices

For your particular use case, I'd shortlist Amazon SES and Postmark.

1. Amazon SES — probably the best value at scale

Amazon SES

SES lets you authenticate your own domain and send large volumes. More importantly, it now has managed dedicated IPs that automatically provision, scale and warm IP addresses according to your sending patterns. docs.aws.amazon.comdocs.aws.amazon.compostmarkapp.com

That's particularly attractive for a media site because you can separate reputations—for example:

• newsletter.yourdomain.com → newsletter/bulk mail
• mail.yourdomain.com → transactional mail
• separate IP pools for marketing vs. transactional traffic

SES explicitly supports this kind of IP-pool separation. docs.aws.amazon.com

The downside is that SES is infrastructure, not really a beautiful newsletter-management product. You'd typically put something like your CMS/newsletter application on top of it.

2. Postmark — my choice if deliverability + simplicity matter more than absolute cost

Postmark

Postmark is interesting because it now supports broadcast messages/newsletters, while keeping broadcast and transactional traffic on separate infrastructure/IPs. postmarkapp.com

That's a very good architecture for a media site:

Your site → Postmark → newsletter subscribers

while

Your site → Postmark → transactional stream → users

remain separated.

Postmark also takes a somewhat unusual stance on dedicated IPs: it says a dedicated IP isn't automatically better and generally prefers its shared pools unless your volume warrants one. Dedicated IPs are currently available to customers sending 300,000+ messages/month. postmarkapp.com

One important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean:

I want editor@mydomain.com and support@mydomain.com inboxes AND I want to send millions of newsletters

I'd separate those two systems.

For example:

Inbox hosting
→ Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 / Fastmail

Newsletter sending
→ SES / Postmark / SendGrid

Don't use your normal mailbox provider as the engine for your mailing list.

For a media site, I'd architect it like this

yourdomain.com
     │
     ├── Google Workspace
     │      └── staff@yourdomain.com
     │
     └── newsletter.yourdomain.com
            │
            └── Amazon SES / Postmark
                   │
                   ├── SPF
                   ├── DKIM
                   ├── DMARC
                   ├── dedicated/broadcast IP
                   └── subscriber reputation

And I'd strongly recommend not sending newsletters directly from the same domain/subdomain you use for employee mail.

If you're talking about 100k, 500k, 1M+ subscribers, the recommendation changes somewhat. At those volumes, I can compare SES vs Postmark vs SendGrid vs Mailgun specifically for a media publisher, including approximate monthly cost, dedicated-IP requirements, domain setup, unsubscribe handling, bounce/complaint processing, and what I'd choose at 100k / 1M / 10M emails per month.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/list, I would not use ordinary hosted mailbox email (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail, etc.) as the bulk-sending engine. Use a normal hosted mailbox service for people, and a specialized email-delivery platform for the mailing list.

My top choices

Amazon SES is probably my first choice if you're technically comfortable. It supports custom sending domains, very high sending quotas, and managed dedicated IPs that automatically warm up and scale based on your sending pattern. docs.aws.amazon.com

Amazon SES

Mailgun is probably the easiest choice if you want a specialized email provider without building as much infrastructure yourself. It supports custom domains, dedicated IPs, IP pools, automated warmup, SPF/DKIM/DMARC, and high-volume sending. www.mailgun.compostmarkapp.com

Mailgun

SendGrid is particularly attractive if this is primarily a newsletter/media operation. Its higher-tier offerings include dedicated IPs, deliverability optimization, domain authentication, analytics, and deliverability expertise. sendgrid.com

SendGrid

Postmark has an interesting architecture for your use case: it explicitly separates broadcast/newsletter traffic from transactional email onto separate infrastructure and IPs. It now supports bulk/broadcast sending as well. postmarkapp.com

Postmark

The setup I'd use for a media site

Something like:

Your domain

• hello@yourdomain.com → Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 / Fastmail
• newsletter@yourdomain.com → SendGrid/Mailgun/SES
• news.yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com → dedicated sending subdomain

Then configure SPF + DKIM + DMARC, and keep newsletter/bulk reputation separate from your employees' ordinary email.

For example:

yourdomain.com → normal human email
newsletter.yourdomain.com → newsletter sending
transactional.yourdomain.com → password resets, receipts, alerts, etc.

That separation is important. Postmark, Mailgun and SES all provide mechanisms for separating different mail streams/reputations. postmarkapp.com

One important caveat about "good deliverability"

A dedicated IP doesn't automatically mean better deliverability. At lower/variable volumes, a good shared pool can actually perform better. Dedicated IPs become more useful when you're sending substantial, consistent volume and can properly warm the IP. Mailgun, AWS, and Postmark all emphasize this point. help.mailgun.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 50k subscribers × 1 newsletter/day), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 setups and approximate monthly cost, including whether I'd use a dedicated IP.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I would not use ordinary hosted mailbox providers like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 as the sending engine. You generally want:

• Your own domain/subdomain, e.g. news.example.com
• SPF, DKIM, and ideally DMARC
• High-volume marketing/newsletter sending
• Reputation management and bounce/complaint handling
• Dedicated IP capability once volume warrants it
• List-unsubscribe headers and engagement controls
• A platform that can separate newsletter traffic from ordinary one-to-one email

My top choices

Mailgun is particularly compelling for your use case. It supports your own sending domains, SPF/DKIM authentication, dedicated IPs, IP pools, and specifically recommends dedicated IP infrastructure once you're above roughly 50,000 emails/week. documentation.mailgun.com

Mailgun

Amazon SES is the option I'd investigate if you're talking about hundreds of thousands or millions of emails per month. SES supports dedicated IPs, including a newer managed-dedicated-IP system that automatically handles IP allocation, scaling, and warmup. docs.aws.amazon.com

Amazon SES

One important distinction

If by "hosted email" you mean actual mailboxes such as:

editor@example.com
john@example.com

and you also need:

newsletter@example.com → 500,000 subscribers

I'd use two systems:

Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 → employee mailboxes
Mailgun / SES / SendGrid → newsletter and automated bulk email

And I'd preferably send newsletters from a dedicated subdomain, such as:

newsletter.example.com

while keeping employee mail on:

example.com

That gives you much better reputation isolation. You can also have separate IP pools for marketing vs. transactional mail. SES explicitly supports this kind of separation. docs.aws.amazon.com

If deliverability is your #1 priority

I'd rank them:

1. Mailgun — easiest combination of serious deliverability infrastructure + control
2. Amazon SES — phenomenal infrastructure and economics, but more engineering work
3. SendGrid — easier marketing-oriented experience
4. Postmark — superb reputation, but primarily designed around transactional mail

One caveat: a dedicated IP doesn't automatically mean better inbox placement. You have to warm it up and maintain good engagement/reputation. SES, for example, explicitly warns that new dedicated IPs need gradual warmup. docs.aws.amazon.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (10k / 100k / 1M+) and how many emails you send per day/week, I can recommend the specific setup—including domain/subdomain, Mailgun vs. SES, dedicated IP strategy, DNS records, and approximate monthly cost.

Yes. If by “hosted email” you mean a service that sends large mailing-list/newsletter volumes from your own domain, I would not use ordinary mailbox hosting like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 as the sending engine.

For a media site, I’d look at these:

My pick for a media site

Amazon SES is probably the strongest infrastructure choice if you're talking about hundreds of thousands or millions of emails/month. SES lets you send from your own verified domain, and you can use dedicated IPs/IP pools to isolate your sender reputation. Its managed dedicated IP option automatically handles IP allocation, scaling and ISP-specific warmup. docs.aws.amazon.com

Amazon SES

The downside is that SES is infrastructure rather than a polished newsletter platform. You'd typically pair it with your site's mailing-list software/CMS or build the sending layer around its API.

Mailgun is a particularly good middle ground

Mailgun is attractive if you want something more turnkey for developers. You can authenticate your own domain, use dedicated IPs, IP pools, mailing lists and batch sending. Mailgun specifically recommends dedicated IPs once you're above roughly 50,000 emails/week, and offers IP-pool infrastructure for higher-volume senders. documentation.mailgun.com

Mailgun

One important distinction

For a media publication, I'd separate:

1. Your actual mailboxes

• editor@yourdomain.com
• staff@yourdomain.com
• tips@yourdomain.com

from

2. Your mass-mailing infrastructure

• newsletter@yourdomain.com
• daily@yourdomain.com
• alerts@yourdomain.com

You can host the first with Google Workspace/Microsoft 365 and send the second through SES/Mailgun/etc. That's generally a much better architecture than trying to send a 500k-recipient newsletter through your normal mailbox provider.

Also, don't assume that a dedicated IP automatically means better inbox placement. Reputation, authentication, complaint rates, bounces, engagement and sending consistency matter enormously. SES, for example, explicitly emphasizes gradual ramp-up because sudden volume increases can cause providers to throttle or block mail. docs.aws.amazon.com

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have (e.g. 50k, 500k, 2M), how often you mail them, and whether you need a Mailchimp-like newsletter UI, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best setups and approximate monthly cost.

Yes. For a media site with a large newsletter/mailing list, I would not use your normal hosted mailbox provider (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) as the bulk-sending engine. I'd separate human email hosting from newsletter delivery.

My top choice: Amazon SES

Amazon SES is particularly attractive if you're sending substantial volume from your own domain.

• Send as newsletter@yourdomain.com while keeping your domain under your control.
• Supports SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which are essential for domain authentication. aws.amazon.com
• For high volume, SES offers managed dedicated IPs that automatically warm up and scale based on your sending patterns. docs.aws.amazon.com
• You can separate reputations—for example, one IP pool for newsletters and another for transactional mail. docs.aws.amazon.com
• It is designed for application/bulk email rather than pretending a mailbox is a newsletter platform.

The important caveat: a dedicated IP doesn't automatically give you good deliverability. Your list quality, complaint rate, engagement, authentication, sending consistency, and unsubscribe handling matter enormously. AWS explicitly notes that you're still responsible for maintaining your sender reputation. docs.aws.amazon.com

What I'd build for a media site

yourdomain.com
       │
       ├── Google Workspace / Microsoft 365
       │      └── normal staff email
       │
       └── newsletter.yourdomain.com
              │
              └── Email service
                    ├── SES
                    ├── dedicated/managed IP
                    ├── DKIM
                    ├── SPF
                    ├── DMARC
                    ├── bounce processing
                    └── unsubscribe/complaint handling

I'd actually consider using a separate subdomain for newsletters, e.g. news.yourdomain.com or email.yourdomain.com, so newsletter reputation can be isolated from your organization's ordinary email.

One important warning about Google Workspace

Google Workspace is excellent for staff mailboxes, but I wouldn't use Gmail itself to blast a media mailing list. Current Workspace limits are only 2,000 messages/day per user, with 3,000 external recipients/day, and Google can restrict accounts that hit sending limits. knowledge.workspace.google.com

Furthermore, Gmail considers you a bulk sender once you reach roughly 5,000 messages/day to personal Gmail accounts, and that status is permanent. Bulk senders have additional authentication, spam-rate and unsubscribe requirements. support.google.com

SES vs. a turnkey provider

If you have an engineering team, I'd lean SES.

If you want something where the newsletter team can operate campaigns without building much infrastructure, I'd look at a dedicated email platform such as SendGrid, Mailgun, or Postmark, depending on the exact workload. The tradeoff is generally ease of use vs. control/cost.

For a media company doing, say, 100k–10M+ emails/month, I'd seriously consider:

Website/CMS → newsletter platform → SES → your domain

rather than having the CMS directly send email.

If you tell me roughly how many subscribers you have and how many emails you send per day/week (e.g. 50k subscribers, one daily newsletter), I can recommend the best architecture and whether you actually need a dedicated IP.