| name | content-brief |
| description | Create an editorial content brief that defines audience, purpose, angle, scope, evidence, format, tone, contributors, deliverables, review path, and publication outcome before drafting begins. |
Editorial Content Brief
Use when a writer or specialist needs clear editorial direction without being handed finished copy.
Procedure
- Define the audience, publication context, reader problem, desired takeaway, and business or editorial purpose.
- State the central angle and what makes this piece distinct from existing coverage or adjacent internal content.
- Define in-scope and out-of-scope topics so the writer can make depth decisions without expanding indefinitely.
- Identify required evidence, interviews, product facts, examples, data, screenshots, or subject-matter reviewers.
- Specify format, approximate depth, voice or tone, timing, distribution context, and any platform or accessibility constraints.
- Clarify the intended action or next step only where the piece genuinely has one.
- Define review ownership for factual, product, legal, technical, brand, or executive claims according to risk.
- Give the writer freedom over structure and prose unless the format itself is part of the assignment.
Decision rules
- A brief defines the problem and constraints, not every sentence.
- Editorial angle should be specific enough to exclude nearby stories.
- Review requirements should follow claim risk, not organizational habit.
- Do not prescribe arbitrary word counts when depth should follow reader need.
Quality gate
The brief is ready when audience, angle, scope, evidence, format, ownership, and publication goal are explicit, source work can begin immediately, and the writer retains enough craft ownership to produce something stronger than a filled-in template.
