An editorial calendar is used by bloggers, publishers, businesses, and groups to control publication across different media, for example, newspaper , magazine , blog , email newsletters, and social media outlets.
Publishers also extract some of their editorial calendar data and make the data publicly available to attract advertisers. Public relations professionals also use these abbreviated editorial calendars to try to place stories for their clients. However, the primary purpose of editorial calendars is to control the publication of content.
Traditional print publishers have used editorial calendars in some forms for the publication of books, magazines, and newspapers. The internet has dramatically increased the number of publishers who also need to
Editorial calendars are used to define and control the process of creating content, from idea through writing and publishing. An individual or small business might have this publishing process:
- Brainstorm content ideas to publish, where to publish, and when to publish
- Write each piece of content based on the publication schedule
- Edit each piece of content
- Publish each piece of content
A larger group might have this publishing process:
- Brainstorm content ideas to publish, where to publish, and when to publish; include backup content items for each piece of content; include dates to determine whether to delay or kill each other (for example, if a writer becomes ill or an interview subject is unavailable)
- Assign each piece of content based on the publication schedule
- Write each piece of content
- Review the first draft of each piece of content
- Give “go” or “no go” decision based on first draft edit and other criteria
- If they are going to be able to do it, they can plan their work
- Final performance edit, copy edit, fact checking, and rewrites as needed
- Submit team of legal team
- Make changes if or as needed based on legal input
- Submit a piece of content for the first time
- Post content on a development and test final changes if needed
- Publish content on the production server or other media
Whether the publishing process is simple or complex, the movement is forward and iterative. Publishers encounter and cross a number of hurdles before a piece of content appears in print, on a website or blog, or in a social media outlet like Twitter or Facebook.
The details included and tracked in an editorial calendar depends on the steps involved in publishing content, is more useful. Too little or too much data make editorial calendars difficult to maintain and use. Some amount of tweaking of editorial calendar elements, while using the calendar to publish content, is required before they can be truly useful.
Content creation process
In addition to the editorial process, each type of content has its own creation process that an editorial calendar must accommodate. The steps and effort to conduct, write, and publish an interview. Understanding the different creative processes involved in a realistic calendar.
Content ideas are usually created through brainstorming, based on current events, and other sources. Publications often group story ideas for the world, for example, an environmental news site might publish research articles on Mondays and interviews with industry leaders on Thursdays. Grouping content helps train readers to return to regular intervals and makes it easier to organize these topics.
Tools
Tools used to create an editorial calendar. There are at least four types of technology used to create an editorial calendar:
- Pieces of paper and file folder
- A paper calendar or online calendar (for example, Google Calendar)
- A spreadsheet or online spreadsheet (for example, Excel or Google Docs)
- Editorial process tracking software in software publishing
Each of these technologies has its strengths and weaknesses. Most editorial calendars are spreadsheets or can be exported as a spreadsheet for review. The spreadsheet has been published for the purposes of discussion, for example, a tab for story ideas, a tab for stories currently being written and edited, and a tab for published stories. There might be more tabs to track editorial style decisions and scheduled changes to the blog that might impact publishing. Within each spreadsheet, the subject of the published author, the micro content (for example, subtitles and HTML alt and title tags to be used in the section of content ) and other useful information to track.
Some editorial calendars also track the responses to each piece of content, for example, the number of tweets, Facebook likes, and links to the content of third party websites. This performance data allows the publisher to identify the most important audience. These results, in turn, can be used to generate new story ideas and, if appropriate, attract advertisers.
Structure and elements
Whether the publisher uses a paper calendar, a spreadsheet, or software integrated with their publishing tool, the newspaper usually publishes these sections:
- Story ideas
- Content production calendar
- Published content
- Glossary of terms or style decisions
Content then moves from one section to the next, from the story idea to published content. The glossary and style decisions section contains the details of the text. If a spreadsheet is used for an editorial calendar, each section would be a tab. If paper is used to publication, a page for each section in a file folder with notes of style and glossary might work.
Within each section of an editorial calendar, these elements might be tracked:
- Story title
- Author
- Publication date
- Media outlet (eg blog, print magazine, or email newsletter)
- Theme (or section)
- Priority
- Status (eg active or inactive)
There may be no doubt in this respect, for example, in the case of a blurb, sub headings, and search for descriptions for HTML links and tags. There may have been passed over, pictures have been created for the story, or other parts of the current publishing process.