A release calendar #

This page is for producers and show teams who release on a schedule. Exponential has no calendar view of planned episodes; the calendar lives in your planning tool or a shared document. What the site gives you is the state of every episode: draft, waiting, published, and, if you set them up, your own production stages. This page puts the two together.

Contents #

1. What the site tells you
2. A calendar template
3. A weekly routine
4. Seasons and breaks
5. When a date slips

What the site tells you #

The broader planning practice for a site is on Content calendar, with a template on Content calendar template.

A calendar template #

Copy this into your planning document. One row per episode:

| No. | Working title | Guests | Recording | Edit done | Notes done | Release (date, time, zone) | Owner | Status on the site |
|-----|---------------|--------|-----------|-----------|------------|----------------------------|-------|--------------------|
| 42  | <title>       | <name> | <date>    | <date>    | <date>     | <date> 06:00 <zone>        | <name>| draft / pending / published |

The last column is checked against the site, not typed from memory.

A weekly routine #

Monday

• Compare the calendar with the site: every episode due this week exists, at least as a draft.
• Check that last week's episodes are in the feed (Checking your feed).

Two days before each release

• The episode is complete: audio, show notes, guests, transcript (Podcaster checklists).
• It is sent for publishing with its release date and is pending (Scheduling a release).
• If approval is needed, the approver knows (Approvals before release).

Release day

• After the first cron run past the release time: the episode is on the site, signed out.
• Within the feed's cache time: it is in the feed.
• Announce it on your channels with the episode's address.

Friday

• Remove test items and stale drafts.
• Note in the calendar what slipped and why.

Seasons and breaks #

• Create the next season's folder before its first episode (Setting up the show structure).
• During a break, keep the feed active; nothing needs to change (Moving, pausing or ending a show).
• At the end of a season, check that Number of objects of the feed still covers the whole back catalog.

When a date slips #

• If the episode is not ready, do not send it for publishing; keep it as a draft.
• If it is already waiting with an old date and must not go out, ask the administrator to cancel the waiting process before the date (Scheduling a release).
• If it went out too early, hiding it takes it off the site and out of the feed at the next cache refresh, but apps that fetched it in between keep it (Hiding and retiring episodes).

Related pages #

• Scheduling a release
• Content calendar
• Podcaster checklists
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.