Editorial Mission Statement
An editorial mission statement boils down your content program into a single sentence: the audience it serves, what that audience achieves, and the type of content you provide. Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi popularized the format. The discipline lies in making it specific enough to actually reject ideas that don't fit. If everything fits this filter, the mission is too vague.
A one-sentence filter for every content decision you will ever make.
We help [audience] do [outcome] by providing [content type].
When to use this
- Before building a content team, to create a hiring and editorial standard from day one.
- When the content calendar sprawls and no one can explain why certain topics do or do not belong.
- As a shorthand reference in editorial meetings when evaluating pitches.