Editorial calendar template: a content calendar with a sample month

When to use it

• Planning a quarter of blog posts for a company, a client or your own site
• Running a weekly or monthly newsletter without a scramble before every send
• Giving the writers and editors on a small team one schedule of deadlines and statuses
• Lining up seasonal stories, launches and events months before they happen
• Turning a long list of ideas into the few pieces you will actually publish

An editorial calendar is a schedule of what you will publish, when, where and who is responsible for each piece. This template keeps it in one document with two halves: a quarter plan (the plan at a glance, two or three goals, a theme for each month and the dates that can't move) and a table for each month with publish dates, deadlines and statuses, plus a backlog of ideas. It fits a blog, a newsletter, a magazine section or a client's content plan. A filled-in sample comes first, then the instructions.

Editorial calendar example: a sample month

This is the calendar of an invented garden supply shop that publishes a blog post every Thursday and a newsletter every Tuesday, with one freelance feature a month. The quarter plan is set once, at the start of the quarter. The month table below it turns the plan into dated pieces and changes every week.

March in detail, as of Friday, Feb. 26. One row per piece, with the goal it serves.

Why it works. Every row names a goal, so the weak spot is visible in February: goal 1, the two events, rests on two newsletter issues and nothing on the blog. Drafts are due at least four days before publication, and the freelance feature has the longest lead time, two weeks, because it depends on interviews. The statuses are honest: on Feb. 26 only the first newsletter is scheduled, and the late-March issues are assigned but not started, which is fine for weekly issues built from the month's news.

One piece, from pitch to scheduled

The month table catches each piece at one moment. Here is the whole path of the Mar. 4 how-to post, as its Status cell recorded it. At every step one person has the piece and one decision is open.

A row in your own calendar with no name or no open decision beside it is the one to ask about at the next planning meeting.

How to use this template

1. Start with a cadence you can keep

   Fill in Plan at a glance first, and be honest in the Cadence row. Orbit Media's 2026 survey of 1,042 content marketers put the average time to write one blog post at 3 hours and 20 minutes. Add the time you need for editing, images and publishing, multiply by the pieces you plan each month, and compare the total with the hours you really have. If it doesn't fit, pick the slower schedule: readers can rely on a newsletter that arrives every two weeks without fail more easily than on a weekly one that skips every third week.

2. Write the goals and themes before any titles

   Two or three goals are enough, each with a number and a date: “Fill 40 workshop seats by March 13,” not “build awareness.” A theme gives each month a focus, so the pieces you pick pull in the same direction. Every row in the calendar names the goal it serves, and the Goal column shows at a glance when one is missing.

3. Mark the dates that can't move

   Fill in Key dates next: launches, events, holidays, the start of the busy season in your trade, and any date readers will search around. Give each one a lead time. A post that promotes a March event goes out in February, and a pitch for a print magazine's holiday issue goes out months before the holiday. Trade magazines often publish their own editorial calendar in their media kit, so advertisers and publicists can see what each issue will cover.

4. Plan backward from each publish date

   For every row, work back from the publish date to the draft deadline. One workable rule for a weekly post: the draft is due a week before publication, the edit two days later, and the piece is scheduled the day before it goes out. Write each date in full. “Next week” means nothing a month from now.

5. Fill one month in detail and two in outline

   The current month gets every column. The next two get dates and working titles, with writers where you know them. Anything that doesn't fit yet goes to the Ideas backlog, with the reader and the question it answers, not just a topic.

6. Review it every week

   Run the checklist at the end of the template before each planning meeting. In each Status cell, keep who has the piece and the next decision current. When a piece slips, move it to a new date instead of deleting it, and note the reason: “Moved from Mar. 11, waiting on photos.” After a quarter, those notes show which kinds of pieces tend to run late.

What goes in each section

Two columns do more work than they seem to. Goal turns the calendar from a list of things to write into a plan: a piece that serves no goal is often a favor to someone, or a sign the goals are missing something. Status only helps if everyone means the same thing by it, which is why the template defines each one. Seven are enough for most teams: Idea, Assigned, Drafting, In edit, Scheduled, Published and Held. Decide whether In edit includes the copy edit or only the first read, and write it down.

Editorial calendar vs content calendar

The two names are often used for the same document. When teams do separate them, the editorial calendar plans the pieces that need writing and editing, such as articles, newsletter issues, reports and videos, while the content calendar (or social media calendar) schedules everything that goes out on each channel, including the posts that promote those pieces. A small team can keep both here, with one row per piece and the channel in the Format column. A newsroom's calendar is a third kind: it tracks scheduled events, such as budget votes, trials and anniversaries, so reporters can prepare before the day.

Editorial calendar samples by format

The month table works for most publishing. These variations change the columns for five common jobs.

Blog editorial calendar

A blog calendar can also track the phrase each post should be found for and when old posts need updating. Add a column for the target phrase and give each refresh a row of its own. For pieces to fill it, start with these blog post ideas; plan each one with the blog post outline template.

Newsletter content calendar

Plan a newsletter by issue. Each row is one send: the send time, the issue number, the lead item, two to four secondary items under the same labels every time, and one ask. The guide on how to write a newsletter covers what goes in each part.

Magazine editorial calendar

A magazine plans by issue and further ahead. The columns follow production: the theme, the story, the writer, the filing date, the close and the date the issue reaches readers. Seasonal stories are assigned long before the season, so read each outlet's guidelines for lead times before you pitch an article.

Social media content calendar

A social calendar schedules posts per channel, usually several for each article. Keep it as a second table below each month, with the channel, the copy, the image and the piece it promotes. Length limits and formats differ by platform and change often, so check each platform's own help pages before you write to a limit.

A freelance writer's calendar

If you write for several outlets or clients, the calendar is also your pipeline: one row per pitch or assignment, with the editor, the dates, the fee and the status. Plan each assigned story with the article outline template.

Tips for a calendar you'll keep

• Keep two finished pieces in reserve. They cover the week a writer is sick or a launch slips.
• Put one name on every row. A row owned by “the team” tends to be owned by nobody.
• Mix timely and evergreen pieces. Pieces tied to a date need firm deadlines. Evergreen ones can move to fill a gap.
• Schedule updates as pieces. An old post that still brings in readers deserves a row when its facts go stale.
• Keep ideas out of the month tables. An idea gets a date when it has a writer and an angle. Until then it lives in the backlog.
• Don't plan more than a quarter in detail. Beyond that, plans usually change too much to be worth the columns. A content brief for each assigned piece is a better use of the time.

“Use this template” opens the calendar in Strokes as a document you can edit and export. Before each planning meeting, ask the Strokes Assistant to review it against the weekly checklist; it points out what's inconsistent, such as a goal with no piece behind it this month or a writer with three deadlines in one week.