Organizing Your Editorial Output

No. 125 — MAY 7, 2026

Organizing Your Editorial Output

Hello, everyone,

This week, we’re tackling a topic that we often put off: project management. Not the formats, not the tools, not the hiring. It’s about how work flows, is coordinated, and is approved. That’s often where things get stuck, and it’s rarely where we invest our resources.

Dorine Planté, head of support at Médianes, shares three practical resources to address this issue, along with a look back at our collaboration with the City of Paris’s information division. Because even in very different contexts, the same challenges keep arising—whether you’re an independent media outlet or a public institution.

And among my current reads: Casey Newton, who is betting on behind-the-scenes coverage and investigative reporting in the face of AI, and a question worth asking about the independence of publishing houses.

Enjoy the read,

MARINE DOUX, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF MÉDIANES

The Strategy

Ideas for Your Media

Project management is the blind spot in newsrooms. Investment goes into formats, tools, and hiring, but rarely into how work flows, coordinates, and gets validated. Three resources to try to change that.

Lay the groundwork

How can you manage projects effectively within a newsroom? This is the central question addressed in Robin Kwong’s (formerly of The Wall Street Journal) guide to project management in newsrooms, which we have translated and edited. Assigning roles, setting a schedule, and fostering communication among participants: the guide lays out the fundamentals for bringing an editorial project to life, regardless of the newsroom’s size.

Think editorial products and content journeys

Producing a newsletter or a podcast isn’t just about creating content. It’s about managing an editorial product that articulates a purpose, a promise, and an organizational structure. This structure must be based on a workflow: a process that defines who initiates, who produces, who approves, and who distributes. MédianesIt thus distinguishes between two workflows: the substantive workflow (planned in advance, involving multiple disciplines) and the responsive workflow (a short process with an identified decision-maker). The principle is that no content circulates without being linked to one of these two workflows.

Clarify who does what at each step

A well-defined process is not enough if roles remain unclear. The RACI matrix makes it possible to specify, for each stage of production, who carries out the task, who has final approval, who is consulted, and who is simply informed. The tool serves a dual purpose: the document itself, which becomes a shared reference framework, and the conversation it sparks, which reveals blind spots that have never before been articulated.

Check out the full version of this article and our other resources on this topic by visiting our website.

From the studio's perspective

A GLANCE AT A SUPPORTED PROJECT

Independent media or major institutions: despite very different contexts, the same problems often arise. Roles that overlap, bottlenecks in workflows, and coordination that relies on too few people.

The City of Paris’s information division, which has more than 55 professionals, asked us to tackle this project in late 2025. We began with an audit: interviews, a questionnaire, and immersion within the teams. This work guided our recommendations, followed by several training sessions developed in collaboration with the teams.

The result: streamlined editorial workflows, more clearly defined responsibilities, and a new collaborative dynamic between departments that had often operated in parallel.

→ Take a behind-the-scenes look at our project with the City of Paris, and learn about our expertise in project management.

On Our Radar

What We're Reading Right Now

Paranoia About AI?

CASEY NEWTON / PLATFORMER

As AI transforms the way people consume news, journalist Casey Newton is rethinking the content strategy for his media outlet, Platformer: gone are the lists of news links; the focus is now on behind-the-scenes stories, in-depth reporting, and scoops. A “terrifying”—or even “paranoid,” in his own words—gamble: building an editorial strategy in anticipation of a potential technological shift driven by AI.

Media Outlets and Publishing Houses on the Same Page

BENOÎT HUET / LE MONDE

Vincent Bolloré’s power grab at Grasset has reignited the debate over the independence of publishing houses, which—like the media—have become pillars of political empires. Should we therefore

Extend the conscience and assignment clauses to authors

, which allow journalists to leave a newsroom in the event of a takeover or an ideological upheaval?

Our Publications

It's homemade

What the Media Can Learn from Wikipedia

OWEN HUCHON

AI is driving down traffic to Wikipedia, threatening its donation-based model while simultaneously exploiting its content on a massive scale. Does that sound familiar? At the Perugia Journalism Festival, the Wikimedia Foundation outlined its strategies for maintaining engagement and building donor loyalty. These are ideas that the media can draw inspiration from.

So management doesn't fall off the media's radar

MARINE SLAVITCH

Management is all too often pushed to the sidelines when launching or developing a media outlet: it’s seen as an abstract concept, there’s a lack of training, and editorial and economic issues take priority… Yet the mental well-being of the editorial staff cannot be treated as a mere variable to be adjusted; it will always determine the success of a project. Here are some ideas, resources, and tips.

In Brief

THAT WAY, YOU'LL KNOW

1. Le Monde des Ados, L’Informé, Les Surligneurs: These media outlets are hiring. Check out their job openings.

2. The (re)launch of *Jeux et Stratégie*, a media outlet dedicated to gaming from every angle, which went through our “Creating a Media Outlet” training program.

3. The first stop on the *Arrêt sur images* tour: Toulouse, on May 26, for a “100% media criticism” evening.

4. Reporterre and La Volte are co-publishing *Lucioles*, a collection of 15 ecological short stories.

5. Le classement RSF 2026 est tombé : « La liberté de la presse au plus bas depuis 25 ans ».

See you on Monday!

for the next edition

We’ll be back on Monday with the latest edition of our industry watch newsletter, *Les 10 liens*, and on May 21 with our edition of *Coulisses*. Not yet subscribed to all our newsletters? Update your preferences so you don’t miss them!

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome the teams from

La Côte, Philosophie Magazine, Arte, and to everyone who has recently joined us.

See you on June 4. Until then, take care of yourselves and your media.

This newsletter was prepared by Dorine Planté and Owen Huchon, in collaboration with the team at Médianes.

Médianes

We are a media outlet, a studio, and a network dedicated to independent journalism.