The editorial calendar is one of the most important tools for newsroom employees and content teams. After all, wherever content is involved, it needs to be sorted and clearly distributed across various communication channels. This is just as true for traditional newsrooms as it is for companies and other publishers. While journalistic newsrooms tend to be confronted with too many topics, corporate newsrooms may find that topics are in short supply. It is therefore essential to create an editorial plan in which editors can organise their topic planning according to their needs, i.e. which topics they would like to work on and publish in the coming days, weeks and months. Needless to say, editors can use standard tools such as Excel. However, this approach reaches its limits. Especially when editorial planning also needs to automatically take information from various digital sources into account. The solution: a tool for editorial planning.
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What is an editorial plan?
An editorial calendar or plan is a kind of comprehensive list in which newsrooms and editorial teams record all the information that is relevant for content publication. As a practical planning tool, it helps newsrooms to structure and schedule publications. To this end, an editorial plan contains a wealth of information that is important for the content planning of topics and the delegation of tasks and work steps. Depending on how often a newsroom plans to publish articles – in a journalistic newsroom there are dozens or even hundreds every day – editorial planning quickly takes on a very extensive form. This makes it all the more important to record the processes that precede publication in the most practical way possible. Planning the next few months in advance has proven to be a successful approach in practice. This is why the term ‘editorial calendar’ fits so well in this context. Fixed topics or series of topics that are prepared well in advance serve as a basic framework, while free slots for current topics and information allow for up-to-date reporting. Being able to react flexibly to unforeseen events and adapt editorial planning as required is also important. Last but not least, an editorial plan should also include recurring events such as public holidays or upcoming events. This allows these dates to be addressed accordingly with customised content.
Creating an editorial plan - what are the different approaches?
There are different approaches to creating an editorial calendar, which differ in terms of their complexity. The more ambitious the editorial planning, the more professional the topic planning needs to be. It is therefore worth taking a closer look at the different methods of editorial planning.
Paper-based editorial planning
Especially when employees in editorial teams or a corporate newsroom are faced with the challenge of creating their first editorial plan, getting together in a small group for a brainstorming session can be useful. And yes, pen and paper are still very much welcome here for recording initial ideas as part of a kick-off or workshop. Ideally, an interdisciplinary team should use a flipchart on which they attach post-its with ideas and cluster them as required. The results of analogue topic planning are usually quite good, although there is inevitably a media break. Eventually, the ideas have to be transferred to a digital editorial plan.
Create an editorial calendar with Excel & Co.
The next step would then be to map the topic planning using a software-based tool such as Excel and make the editorial plan accessible to all authorised users via the browser, for example via Dropbox or Google Docs. This offers the advantage that several editors – depending on the approval level – can work with the plan in parallel. Others, however, are only authorised to read information or comment on it.
Use a content management system for editorial planning
In addition, some content management systems (CMS) support the creation of to-do lists. Admittedly, such a list does not replace professional topic planning. Nevertheless, it can be very helpful for assigning work and proofreading tasks to a person, for example, and for ticking off tasks once they have been completed. Depending on the CMS, it is also possible to save smaller input texts directly.
Editorial planning with a professional editorial planning tool
Collecting, managing and processing input is the aspect that will separate non-professional from highly efficient teams. Not only is the amount of information constantly increasing, but the number of information sources is also growing – from established sources such as news agencies, research networks, press spokespersons, event portals and authorities to the personal contacts and research of in-house editors and social media posts. An AI-based editorial planning tool such as Newsmind Stories not only monitors countless digital sources and streams. It also pre-sorts the incoming reports and summarises them in topic clusters. This is particularly beneficial for the newsrooms of media companies, which have to constantly monitor the information and news situation.
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What must be considered prior
to editorial planning?
An editorial calendar is not something that can be quickly pulled out of thin air. Ideally, the editorial plan should be worked out to such an extent that one glance is enough to know which topics are planned for publication in three or five months’ time. Editors-in-chief should therefore clarify a number of strategic questions with their newsroom team in advance:
Target group: Who do I want to address?
In the corporate newsroom in particular, but also in a journalistic environment, employees are well advised to know their target group precisely. What are they interested in? What are their pain points? What challenges are they struggling with? What goals are they pursuing?
Objectives: What do I want to achieve?
What is the goal that a newsroom wants to achieve with its communicative measures: While journalists are primarily concerned with informing, educating and entertaining consumers, employees in the corporate newsroom generally pursue other goals. They are required to attract the attention of their target group, generate new leads and acquire them as new customers, with the help of content marketing.
Channel: Which touchpoints do I use to reach my target group?
To achieve their goals, corporate newsrooms must ensure that the content is available where the target group is. It is important to adapt the content to the needs of the target audience and in accordance with the channel-specific standards. For example, a tweet may only be 280 characters long. Not only in marketing: The question of the channel also arises for journalists. Their articles, video or audio contributions not only appear in their own newspaper or on the corresponding website. Being active on social media has also long been a must for media companies. This is why social media must also be taken into account in editorial planning.
Format: What is the best way to prepare my content?
Depending on the target group and channel, a topic can be presented in completely different ways. Text is ideal for a blog, while YouTube requires moving image content. For Instagram, on the other hand, high-quality photos and graphics as well as short videos in portrait format are a must. It is therefore essential to familiarise yourself with the formats of the respective channel.
Ideas: What do I want to communicate?
Experience has shown that it is a good idea not only to create an editorial plan, but also to work on topic planning at the same time. While the editorial plan sets out when which content is to be published at which touchpoint, a topic plan serves as a pool of ideas. It makes little sense to include all ideas in the editorial plan at once. After all, every article – regardless of the format – not only requires a concept, but also a certain lead time for its creation. It is therefore advisable to only include a topic in the editorial calendar when it is relevant and the deadline can be met.
What information belongs in an editorial calendar?
A variety of aspects need to be taken into account when planning editorial work – from ideas and events to tasks and deadlines to responsibilities and competences. The following applies: Good planning is half the battle. It is advisable to consider the following information when newsrooms create an editorial plan:
How does an editorial planning tool support topic planning?
Newsrooms that obtain most of their input from digital sources in particular will find an AI-based editorial planning tool extremely useful. This is because it is a major challenge for editorial teams to pick out the information that is relevant for the respective medium and its target group from the vast amount of information available. It is obvious that this task cannot be accomplished manually. Even conventional editorial planning tools quickly reach their limits when dealing with millions of individual pieces of information from dozens of sources. Our article on the new standard in the newsroom, which appeared in the 12/2020 issue of FKT Magazine, describes how an editorial planning tool based on artificial intelligence can provide relief here.
Our editorial planning software in action
Under the name Plan.R, German broadcaster WDR uses our AI-based tool Newsmind Stories to plan topics efficiently and across all channels – i.e. for television, radio and social media.
Step by step guide for the editorial plan
Creating an editorial schedule is a multi-stage process:
Editorial planning – our conclusion
Newsrooms of all sizes cannot avoid professional editorial planning. The more complex and extensive the requirements in terms of topic planning and editorial planning are, the more indispensable an editorial calendar is. In the hustle and bustle of day-to-day operations, it serves as a support so as not to lose the common thread in content collection, structuring, scheduling, preparation and distribution. In addition, professional editorial planning is needed to optimise the distribution of individual to-dos among the available resources. For all content-specific tasks, an editorial planning tool demonstrates its strength and increases the efficiency of newsrooms on a daily basis.
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