Template The system that turns a content strategy into shipped pieces at a predictable rate

Content operations is the part of the content function no reader sees and every reader is affected by. It is the system that turns a strategy into shipped pieces at a predictable rate, with predictable quality, by named people, on a named timeline.

When operations is loose, deadlines slip, briefs come back rewritten, and the team has the same arguments about scope every Friday. This template defines the system end to end so the arguments stop happening.

Why use this template?

• Make every step accountable to a named owner: no orphaned reviews, no surprise approvals, no last-minute legal scrambles.
• Replace verbal approvals with a contract: every review step has a checklist, and a piece is not approved until every box is checked.
• Stop improvising distribution at publish time: day-0 through day-30 sequences are defined per format, before the piece ships.
• Pick two or three measures per format and stop measuring everything else: measurement that drives decisions, not a dashboard nobody opens.

Who is this template for?

• Production leads who own the calendar and are tired of being the only person tracking deadlines.
• Heads of content who want a defensible answer to “where are we on capacity?”
• Editors who need a written contract with writers about what review actually checks.
• Distribution leads who want the publish-day handoff to stop being a fire drill.

What’s inside?

• Roles: every role in the content function mapped to a single named owner and the decisions that role is responsible for.
• Intake: the five doors a piece of content can enter through, and the six things every intake has to answer.
• Brief checklist: the operations-side gate that a brief must pass before it can be assigned.
• Production calendar: the single source of truth with its columns, statuses, and escalation rules.
• Review: the checklists for editorial, SEO, and legal or compliance review.
• Publish runbook: the eight-step sequence from staging QA to sitemap ping.
• Distribution: day-0 to day-30 sequences for every named format.
• Measurement: two or three measures per format, reviewed at the right cadence.
• Refresh: the trigger conditions that move an older piece back into the calendar as a refresh.
• Quarterly review: five questions that surface what to add and what to subtract from operations.