An organized editorial team works in a structured and forward-looking manner. You do this with a cross-media publication schedule and content calendar. And by choosing recurring categories or formats and extracting many different types of content from them. This applies not only to print, but also to online and social media.
The word leaf rhythm is a well-known concept among magazine makers. It’s the way the layout of a magazine is made and how productions are conceived and planned on ‘the shelf’. A number of standard rules apply to a page rhythm. But with the necessary creativity you can easily ‘extend’ those rules to the online editors.
Timeline rhythm
Is there such a thing as a page rhythm for online? Of course! Call it a timeline rhythm. Readers of online and social media also want anchor points, recognition and structure. Humans like patterns. Every site and every social media account has its own rhythm, frequency and channel-specific characteristics. It is important to keep tight control over this.
Content planning for a cross-media shelf
How do you make a ‘shelf’ for all channels? A schedule that allows the entire editorial staff to work on the various platforms at the same time. Easy? No. But with a little effort, such a puzzle can be put together.
Once an editorial team works with a good cross-media content calendar, it has more control. Moreover, the processes run more smoothly and that benefits the group feeling, a common view of how and why and the final results.
Start with the story
It is important with a cross-media mindset not to take the channel as a starting point, but the story. A common mistake editors make is to focus on what the medium or channel needs. The starting point for planning is then always the end product. Take an interview for a magazine, for example. Then you think: text and photography. While excellent (live) video material can also be made during an interview, or a podcast and graphic quotes for social media.
An important starting point for good cross-media direction is that you do not create channel-specific content, but that stories ‘travel’ along all channels of your brand.
Content Atomization
As an editor you want to tell good stories. You can produce that, publish it and you’re done. But in this fragmented media landscape, readers are likely to miss them. It is more effective to draw attention to it with separate content elements (or atoms). We call that: content atomization. As editors, you always tell a small part of the story and make the readers curious for more. It is the amalgamation of publishing and marketing content.
Content Atomization means that you break fixed, recurring formats (or sections) into small publication moments across different channels in the same way.
Because the set-up is always the same, you can come up with a standard publishing and distribution schedule for a recurring format
The first points on the calendar
The formats or rubrics you choose to atomize consist of fixed formats with a high production value, which repeat over and over again. For example, start with the regular sections of the magazine: the interviews, the reports, the inside look. Don’t have a magazine? Then choose a content formula for your online magazine, blog or platform that consists of fixed formats.
These fixed formats or sections can result in many publication moments for online and social media. Before publication of a magazine, as a teaser or preview (in stores tomorrow!), but also afterwards to increase the ROI (return on investment) of content. Consistently publish stories online and make sure they fill the socials too. Certainly via social media (timeless) content can be offered repeatedly to optimize traffic to the site.
Example:
Every month the magazine features an interview with a celebrity or an expert. Because the setup is always the same, you can come up with a standard publication and distribution schedule for this format. For example, you can schedule various publication moments well in advance in a cross-media content calendar.
- Call Facebook: what do you want to know about the celebrity?
- Photos of celebrities with quotes, cover photo and call to action: in the store tomorrow!
- Behind the scenes photos and video material
- Separate photos of the shoot, the impression of the atmosphere and visual quotes from celebrities on Instagram Timeline and Story
- Blog post with photos and video: moving portrait of celebrities, distribution via Facebook as a link and as native video
- Short video soundbite celebrity for Instagram timeline and Stories
Recurring patterns
If you plan an interview with a celebrity or expert for your media brand every month, the stories of different celebrities will mix well in this way, and you will get a dynamic alternation with the other planned content (see example below). ).
Make such a schedule for several fixed formats. That is the way to arrive at a good cross-media content calendar. The choice of how many formats you can atomize naturally depends on your media pressure, size or publication frequency. The more content, the more often you publish on online and social media. Of course, the editorial budget and editorial capacity also play a role.
Social media rhythms
Each channel has its own purpose, its own ideal frequency and specific characteristics. The rule also applies that not all editorial content is suitable for every channel. Cross-media productions, which are properly atomized, form the basic stream of content across all channels. It is the backbone of the content calendar. In addition, you plan content that is channel-specific and responds to the specifics of the channel. Take Instagram Stories as an example. This platform requires very specific photos, videos and graphic elements.
Or take Facebook. After the 2018 algorithm changes, you can no longer use the platform purely as a distribution channel for your online content. The algorithm requires you to use Facebook for ‘meaningful interaction’. So think of reader questions, appeals, debate about propositions or research: content in which you involve the readers.
Print has a deadline, for online you work in ‘sprints’
Print editors know the pressure of the deadline. They work from number to number and magazine formulas guide editorial choices. You can use the same principle for online. For planning for online and social media, work with ‘content sprints’. That is a fixed period of 2, 3, 4 or 6 weeks. During this period it is determined what will be published. This is described in a content strategy or a Content Playbook. Make sure that a print is filled with fixed, recurring, cross-media formats. See an example below (content sprint of 2 weeks. You can also plan the same amount of content over 3, 4 or 6 weeks, if you find the media pressure too high.). Based on these sprints, you can make an annual schedule based on 48 weeks (with breaks in summer and winter) or 52 weeks.
Content ensures efficiency and working ahead
Working in sprints has many advantages. You don’t have to keep meeting about the form and function of content, that’s fixed. You can also ‘manage’ the requests of internal and external stakeholders much better. They get a ‘lock’ in the spint and if they are too late with their requests then the following applies: gone = gone. You can also meet not only linearly (what are we going to do next sprint?) but also by format. In the example above: which 8 experts will we invite for the next 4 sprints. This way you can work ahead in bulk, which is very beneficial for peace and planning.
Content calendar tools
There are several tools available to create schedules. But good old Excel is not such a bad idea to start your content calendar with. It is important that you do not mix up the content calendar and the publication schedule (or sprint planning). The publication schedule contains an overview of all fixed and recurring formats. You can do that in excel. The content calendar is the content of this schedule. There are very good editorial planning tools that allow you to plan content for online and social media. Think of ‘Kanban boards’, such as you can create in Teams, Asana, Trello or Clickup. In it you can already create all cards for the different formats per sprint. Each story gets a map and to the map you assign teams, dates and give an overview of the fixed atomization, so everyone knows what needs to be made. This map can travel to different verticals, such as idea, in production, ready for final editing, ready for atomization, ready for publication. With these tools, everyone in the editorial office can see what’s on the roll, who’s doing what, when the content will be produced and published.
Then work with a social media planner to schedule all content atoms for repeated distribution across all socials. Well-known tools are: Later, Hootsuite, Buffer, Obi4one, Coosto.
Data driven method
A publication schedule is not carved in marble. Get started with regular headings or formats and over time analyze whether they work, both on the production side and on the recipient side. Are they well read, well appreciated, and do they generate reactions and likes? If not, it’s time to adjust a format or rubric. Let data play a permanent role in this.
The Bladendokter.nl team organizes various training courses, in which the cross-media practice is central. Knowing more? View our range of in-company training courses.
