Editorial Calendar Tools
Tools used to create an editorial calendar vary from paper to standalone tracking software integrated into publishing tools. There are at least four types of technology used to create an editorial calendar:
- Pieces of paper and a file folder
- A paper calendar or online calendar (for example, Google Calendar, Teamup Calendar)
- A spreadsheet or online spreadsheet (for example, Excel or Google Docs)
- Editorial process tracking software in your publishing software
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 tabs that reflect the publishing process, 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 additional tabs to track editorial style decisions and scheduled changes to the blog that might impact publishing. Within each spreadsheet tab, there might be columns to track the name of the published piece, the assigned author, the publication destination, micro content (for example, sub headings and HTML alt and title tags to be used in links to the piece 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 from third party websites. This performance data allows the publisher to identify content that appeals most to their readers and larger audience. These results, in turn, can be used to generate new story ideas and, if appropriate, attract advertisers.
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Famous quotes containing the words editorial, calendar and/or tools:
“I have been in the editorial business going on fourteen years, and it is the first time I ever heard of a man’s having to know anything in order to edit a newspaper.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“To divide one’s life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry on its dull wall-existence by the arbitrary timetables we have drawn up in consultation with those permanent commuters, Earth and Sun. But we, unlike trees, need grow no annual rings.”
—Clifton Fadiman (b. 1904)
“But lo! men have become the tools of their tools.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)