Template · C104
Content plan: capacity, maintenance and value per committed day
How do you choose the content to produce when requests exceed editorial capacity and every publication also commits its maintenance?
Direct answer
A content plan first deducts the maintenance of the existing stock, then ranks requests by expected value per committed day, production and annual maintenance included, and keeps only those above the full cost of a day.
01Produce, postpone or decline each piece of content according to its value per committed day and the capacity left after maintaining the existing stock.
02The rule, the evidence and the next review date stay visible.
How to use this
Move from the question to the deliverable.
How do you choose the content to produce when requests exceed editorial capacity and every publication also commits its maintenance?
Produce, postpone or decline each piece of content according to its value per committed day and the capacity left after maintaining the existing stock.
Editorial portfolio under capacity
Downloadable template · SQ-104
Count maintenance before promising new content
An editorial calendar adds up topics; a content plan shares out a capacity. Every published piece will have to be checked, updated or withdrawn: tomorrow’s production is already partly committed by today’s stock.
Illustrative case: a B2B editorial team with 40 days per quarter, 18 of which go to maintaining 120 existing pieces. Five requests add up to 39 days of production. The full cost of a day is €600.
- 01Deduct
Remove from the quarterly capacity the maintenance days of the existing stock: checks, updates and scheduled withdrawals.
- 02Estimate
For each request, estimate the production days, the annual maintenance days and the expected contribution, with its owner.
- 03Rank
Calculate the value per committed day and decline any request that stays below the full cost of a day, even if capacity remains.
- 04Commit
Keep the requests by decreasing value up to the remaining capacity, postpone the others and add their maintenance to the next quarter.
Editorial portfolio under capacity
The portfolio sets the requests against the 22 days left after maintenance and ranks them by value per committed day, annual maintenance included.
Value per committed day = expected annual contribution ÷ (production days + annual maintenance days)| Content | Type | Production | Annual maintenance | Expected contribution | Value per committed day | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offer comparison guide | New | 8 d | 2 d | €24,000 | €2,400 | Produce |
| Pricing guide | Update | 3 d | 1 d | €9,000 | €2,250 | Produce |
| Customer case study | New | 6 d | 0.5 d | €10,400 | €1,600 | Produce |
| Industry white paper | New | 12 d | 3 d | €15,000 | €1,000 | Postpone |
| Series of ten news articles | New | 10 d | 5 d | €6,000 | €400 | Decline |
01Out of 40 days, 22 remain after maintaining the stock: the offer comparison guide, the pricing guide and the case study take 17 of them, by decreasing value.
02The news series is worth €400 per committed day, below the full cost of €600: it is declined for its value, not for lack of room.
03The white paper clears the threshold but not the 5 remaining days: it is postponed to the next quarter, whose capacity already loses the maintenance of the three new pieces.
Illustrative case. The expected contribution is an estimate to be compared with the measured contribution; a piece of content with no planned measurement should not enter the portfolio.
Reference sources
Coherence controls
Minimum conditions before validation.
The status, the evidence and the owner must be available for review.
The status, the evidence and the owner must be available for review.
The status, the evidence and the owner must be available for review.
The status, the evidence and the owner must be available for review.
Usable deliverable
Editorial portfolio under capacity
Explore the decision further with an interactive control, or start from a structured template to produce your deliverable.