Tech Republic
7 Free Editorial Calendar Templates You Can Use Proper Now
Nov
Managing content material at scale is a problem — staying organized, deciding what to submit, assigning writers and editors, and monitoring outcomes requires a whole lot of transferring components. The extra individuals concerned, the extra advanced the system.
Editorial calendars simplify all of this. They supply a big-picture overview, making it a lot simpler to strategize and schedule out the week, month, or yr.
After almost a decade of managing excessive quantity content material groups, listed here are my favourite no value editorial calendar templates for various instruments.
Monday.com: A complete editorial calendar template
Monday.com’s editorial calendar template delivers a pre-built content material calendar that’s straightforward to customise alongside crew collaboration options and activity administration capabilities from top-of-the-line challenge administration options available on the market.
It’s nice for prime degree technique, work administration, and centralized content material operations out of the field.
Extra on monday.com: monday.com review | Asana vs monday.com | monday.com vs Jira.
This template can be utilized for any and all sorts of content material — from blog posts and ebooks to social media and video, it’s versatile sufficient to help all your publishing exercise.
You’ll be able to arrange a color-coded system to prioritize your most necessary content material and use customized tags to filter every thing in a means that’s straightforward to grasp. Regardless of how stacked your publishing schedule turns into, you’ll at all times know what’s forward.
When you’re a solo person, it’s seemingly overkill until you customise it. Nevertheless, it’s good for those who’re working with not less than a number of different individuals or a full content material crew.
You should use this template, together with 200 others, without charge with monday.com’s free plan.
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ClickUp: A beginner-friendly editorial calendar template
Much like monday.com, ClickUp is a whole challenge administration resolution. The 2 platforms are almost similar in terms of options and capabilities, so selecting one over the opposite principally comes down to private choice and worth.
That stated, ClickUp’s editorial calendar template is a bit simpler to make use of out of the gate, particularly for novices.
Extra on ClickUp: ClickUp review | ClickUp vs monday.com | ClickUp vs Notion.
Other than the standard calendar, ClickUp offers you 5 extra views, together with a listing view, content material request view, useful resource view, and key phrases view. Thanks to those additional views, protecting observe of deadlines and managing each facet of your manufacturing move is a breeze.
You can too add customized attributes to every piece of content material, just like the channel, publication date, editor, and even the CTA you’re utilizing.
When you add these, you possibly can observe the efficiency of granular particulars for all of the content material you publish. Including customized attributes takes a couple of clicks and you’ll add as many as you want.
As a result of ClickUp is a challenge administration software, you’re additionally getting the entire necessities for crew collaboration, assigning duties, and setting due dates.
General, this template is nice whether or not you’re planning years upfront or only a few weeks.
You can begin utilizing this template with ClickUp’s free plan within the subsequent 5 minutes. Plus, ClickUp’s paid plans are extra reasonably priced than monday.com.
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Smartsheet: A template for brainstorming and managing content material
Smartsheet’s editorial calendar template consists of an space for brainstorming content material concepts and transferring the very best concepts into your manufacturing workflow.
It really works nicely for any sort of content material from movies and pictures to weblog posts, podcasts, and visitor posts. It additionally offers you every thing it is advisable see your schedule by month or yr at a look.
Extra on Smartsheet: Smartsheet review | Smartsheet vs Airtable | Smartsheet vs Asana.
You should use this template with Smartsheet, however the software itself doesn’t have a free plan. When you don’t wish to pay, you possibly can obtain the template and use it with Excel or Google Sheets as an alternative.
Both means, you’ll be capable of assign duties, set publishing dates, take notes, go away feedback, and keep on high of missed deadlines.
That stated, it doesn’t historically seem like a calendar until you employ it with Smartsheet. As a substitute, you’ll see a desk with all your scheduled content material for every month.
When you’re a fan of lists and tables, it’s greater than sufficient.
Utilizing it with Smartsheet additionally offers you extra capabilities, together with a Gantt chart, automations, fundamental workload monitoring, attachment storage, and extra. Nevertheless, Smartsheet is on the costlier finish of challenge administration and relational database options.
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Airtable: A digital and print editorial calendar template
Airtable is a complicated relational database resolution that provides you every thing it is advisable construct a customized editorial calendar that matches your workflow. Consider it as a clean slate you possibly can customise as a lot (or as little) as you’d like.
When you deal with print media, the print editorial calendar template allows you to simply handle print and digital media in the identical place.
Extra on Airtable: Airtable review | Airtable vs monday.com | Airtable vs Notion.
Not like different templates up to now, this one allows you to set up content material by situation and print schedule, permitting you to satisfy tight deadlines and keep on high of publishing exercise.
You can too arrange completely different classes for every situation. For instance, you can have separate duties assigned to completely different individuals with distinctive deadlines for news, life-style, and meals — all to your December 2024 print situation which has its personal due date.
Airtable additionally makes it straightforward to take content material out of your print schedule and switch it right into a digital launch with a built-in relationship again to the unique print.
The pliability of this template means you possibly can deal with simply about any situation you might end up in. You can too add extra fields and relationships, supplying you with full control to make your system work such as you do.
I wouldn’t use this template for those who’re not working with a crew or dealing with conventional media, nevertheless it’s good for large publishers and information websites.
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Notion: A easy editorial calendar template for small groups and solo customers
Notion, like Airtable, gives relational databases. Nevertheless, Notion is less complicated to make use of, extra reasonably priced, and extra approachable for small groups and solo publishers.
The editorial calendar template is streamlined and easy, bringing all publishing exercise into one view.
Extra on Notion: Notion review | Notion vs OneNote | Coda vs Notion.
You can too simply set up content material by sort, author, standing, due date, and extra. There’s even a subject for illustrations and visuals and one other for the viewers you’re concentrating on. The viewers subject means you possibly can simply see the pipeline for every section of your viewers to make sure a balanced publishing schedule.
Certainly one of Notion’s built-in views is a calendar, so it’s straightforward to modify between a normal record of content material and a high-level editorial calendar any time.
Alternatively, you should utilize Kanban view for a visible indication of the standing of every piece.
Regardless of its simplicity, you and your crew can view all your content material in no matter means works greatest for you.
You should use the template by itself or join it to different Notion workspaces you’re planning to arrange or have already got. Though it’s not as scalable as others, it’s an ideal place to begin with loads of room to customise and add on as you develop.
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Asana: An approachable editorial calendar template for bloggers
Asana is a extra conventional challenge administration resolution in comparison with the opposite instruments we’ve talked about up to now. It’s easier and loads simpler to make use of with out sacrificing necessities.
The streamlined nature and ease of use of Asana’s free editorial calendar template make it an ideal choice for busy bloggers, small content material groups, and enterprise web sites who don’t want something fancy.
Extra on Asana: Asana review | Asana vs ClickUp | Basecamp vs Asana.
The perfect half about this template is how seamlessly it really works for people or groups. Regardless of how you’re employed, it’s straightforward to plan months, quarters, or perhaps a yr upfront and assign work to everybody at every stage of the publishing course of.
On high of that, it really works for almost any sort of content material – blogs, movies, photos, information tales, podcasts, and print to call a couple of.
You’ll be able to arrange a easy color-coded system on the calendar primarily based on content material sort or distribution channel, so you’ve a birds-eye view of your complete schedule.
As a challenge administration resolution, Asana additionally makes it straightforward to set deadlines, observe duties, and collaborate along with your crew. You can too modify due dates or re-assigning work primarily based on useful resource capability or precedence shifts in a couple of clicks.
Asana gives a beneficiant free plan that’s greater than sufficient to get began.
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HubSpot: A low-volume template for Excel and Google Sheets
When you’re publishing at low quantity and wish a easy solution to see upcoming posts for the week or month, this free template from HubSpot covers all of the fundamentals.
This template is about so simple as it will get — there are columns for publish date, due date, title, particulars, key phrases, and a CTA. For publishing a couple of items of content material every week or month, it’s greater than sufficient.
Extra on spreadsheets: Free Excel alternatives | Excel tips and tricks | AI writer for Google Sheets.
You’ll be able to obtain it as an Excel file or open it in Google Sheets. The formatting is similar for each choices. HubSpot additionally not too long ago added an choice to make use of it along with your Google Calendar for those who want that as an alternative.
There are three fundamental sheets — one for all your content material, a weekly view, and a month-to-month view.
The perfect strategy is duplicating all three tabs earlier than you begin so that you at all times have a clean model of every for the next month. This manner, you too can plan a number of months forward.
The largest downside of this template is what makes it nice within the first place. It’s easy. However there’s no solution to view a quarterly or annual schedule. You’ll be able to set this up if you realize your means round spreadsheets, however at that time you would possibly as nicely use a unique template.
General, it’s an ideal place to begin for low quantity publishing. Whereas the template itself is free, you’ll have to present an electronic mail handle to obtain it.
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What’s an editorial calendar?
An editorial content material is a high-level useful resource that outlines publishing schedules for the month or yr. It’s a good way to plan several types of content material and guarantee your publishing exercise aligns with enterprise aims.
Because the title implies, an editorial calendar usually appears to be like like an precise calendar — exhibiting days, weeks, and months over the course of a yr.
However most fashionable editorial calendar templates embody different views like desk, Kanban, Gantt, and record.
I like to consider editorial calendars like a blueprint or roadmap. They’re designed to point out the place you wish to go, and the way you’re going to get there.
Who makes use of editorial calendars?
Regardless of the title, editorial calendars aren’t only for editors. They can be utilized by any skilled who oversees content material manufacturing or creates long-term marketing plans.
That may very well be the proprietor of a small weblog or YouTube channel or a challenge supervisor dealing with the schedule for dozens of channels.
Different examples embody:
- Web site homeowners.
- Unbiased bloggers.
- Social influencers.
- Small enterprise homeowners.
- Weblog editors.
- Content material entrepreneurs.
- Social media specialists.
- PR groups.
- Undertaking managers.
- Media coordinators.
As a result of the principle good thing about an editorial calendar is a high-level overview of planning and publishing exercise, they’re principally utilized by managers and supervisors in an expert setting.
Outdoors of that, they’re match for anybody who desires a high down view, whether or not or not they’re assigning work to different individuals or doing every thing themselves.
What’s the distinction between an editorial calendar and a content material calendar?
The phrases editorial calendar and content material calendar are sometimes confused with one another, however they’re not the identical factor.
Content material calendars are usually used for day-to-day content material administration — like assigning duties and transferring content material by means of your workflow. Editorial calendars are for big-picture planning and managing strategic objectives.
That stated, a lot of the editorial calendars you’ll discover right now (together with a number of on my record) embody content material administration options. Slightly than having to make use of a number of instruments and templates for every, you can begin with an editorial calendar and slowly flip it right into a full content material calendar with assignees, due dates, classes, and different areas you wish to hold observe of.
For instance, you can have a high-level calendar in a single view for planning and technique with a separate Kanban board that organizes the identical info in a means that’s extra helpful for writers and editors actively engaged on content material.
That’s why a lot of the templates you’ll discover are constructed utilizing project management software.
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