Subscriptions: do not display error message on private sites

[jeherve]

Fixes CML-1043
Follow-up to #23692

Proposed changes:

We should not display an error when a site is marked as private on WordPress.com, since you can use newsletters with private sites.

Other information:

• Have you written new tests for your changes, if applicable?
• Have you checked the E2E test CI results, and verified that your changes do not break them?
• Have you tested your changes on WordPress.com, if applicable (if so, you'll see a generated comment below with a script to run)?

Jetpack product discussion

• N/A

Does this pull request change what data or activity we track or use?

• No

Testing instructions:

Note

Test this on a private WordPress.com site

• Apply this patch.
• Go to Posts > Add New
• Check the "Newsletter" panel in the editor sidebar.
• You should not see a message that says "You will be able to send newsletters once the site is published".

[github-actions]

Thank you for your PR!

When contributing to Jetpack, we have a few suggestions that can help us test and review your patch:

• ✅ Include a description of your PR changes.
  
• ✅ Add a "[Status]" label (In Progress, Needs Review, ...).
  
• ✅ Add a "[Type]" label (Bug, Enhancement, Janitorial, Task).
  
• ✅ Add testing instructions.
  
• ✅ Specify whether this PR includes any changes to data or privacy.
  
• ✅ Add changelog entries to affected projects
  

This comment will be updated as you work on your PR and make changes. If you think that some of those checks are not needed for your PR, please explain why you think so. Thanks for cooperation 🤖

---

Follow this PR Review Process:

1. Ensure all required checks appearing at the bottom of this PR are passing.
2. Make sure to test your changes on all platforms that it applies to. You're responsible for the quality of the code you ship.
3. You can use GitHub's Reviewers functionality to request a review.
4. When it's reviewed and merged, you will be pinged in Slack to deploy the changes to WordPress.com simple once the build is done.

If you have questions about anything, reach out in #jetpack-developers for guidance!

---

Jetpack plugin:

The Jetpack plugin has different release cadences depending on the platform:

• WordPress.com Simple releases happen as soon as you deploy your changes after merging this PR (PCYsg-Jjm-p2).
• WoA releases happen weekly.
• Releases to self-hosted sites happen monthly:
  • Scheduled release: December 2, 2025

If you have any questions about the release process, please ask in the #jetpack-releases channel on Slack.

[github-actions]

Are you an Automattician? Please test your changes on all WordPress.com environments to help mitigate accidental explosions.

• To test on WoA, go to the Plugins menu on a WoA dev site. Click on the "Upload" button and follow the upgrade flow to be able to upload, install, and activate the Jetpack Beta plugin. Once the plugin is active, go to Jetpack > Jetpack Beta, select your plugin (Jetpack), and enable the update/newsletter-panel-private-sites branch.
• To test on Simple, run the following command on your sandbox:

bin/jetpack-downloader test jetpack update/newsletter-panel-private-sites

Interested in more tips and information?

• In your local development environment, use the jetpack rsync command to sync your changes to a WoA dev blog.
• Read more about our development workflow here: PCYsg-eg0-p2
• Figure out when your changes will be shipped to customers here: PCYsg-eg5-p2

[jp-launch-control]

Code Coverage Summary

This PR did not change code coverage!

That could be good or bad, depending on the situation. Everything covered before, and still is? Great! Nothing was covered before? Not so great. 🤷

Full summary · PHP report · JS report

[Addison-Stavlo]

I think there is still some nuance with private sites. Recalling recent discussions around this it sounds like private sites will not send newsletter emails to subscribers who are not site members, unless a custom blog sticker is enabled (the private-nesletter sticker from 194881-ghe-Automattic/wpcom/files). So we will probably want to check that sticker here?

[jeherve]

@Addison-Stavlo What do you think about adding a custom message when a site is private, explaining that nuance?

[Addison-Stavlo]

What do you think about adding a custom message when a site is private, explaining that nuance?

Im not sure we made that sticker available publicly yet, I think source code was the only reason it was added so we may have held off on exposing the option to other customers unless they start reaching out with a need for it. So perhaps better to:

• Show no message if the site has the special sticker, regardless of being private
• Show a message if it is private without the sticker - this could be the current message, or we could elaborate to say only site members will get the email (not basic subscribers).

cc @arcangelini if you have any thoughts or other context here.