List of Content Calendar Tools

We get asked all the time which editorial content planning tools are the best on the market. Of course, we believe Kordiam is the best, but it's only the best for some organizations and some teams. No single tool works for everyone. This guide focuses on editorial content planning tools used by newsrooms, broadcasters, publishers, and communications teams to coordinate planning, assignments, and publishing across platforms.

So, in the spirit of honest exploration and useful research, we’ve put together a curated list of the top content calendar software options for 2026. Whether you’re a small team or a large corporation, this guide is designed to help you get an overview of the plethora of tools. However, because there are so many tools out there, we aren’t able to list all of them, so this list is not exhaustive

This list doesn’t only include strictly planning tools, it also includes content management systems (CMS), content publishing systems, and plug-ins that enhance the functionality of content planning tools.

For a deeper breakdown of editorial calendar types and use cases, see our guide to Editorial Calendar tools.

How these tools are grouped

Dedicated editorial planning and calendar tools
Broadcast planning and rundown tools
CMS plugins and extensions
All-in-one publishing platforms
Generic planning tools adapted for content teams

Editorial Content Calendar Tools for Newsrooms

An editorial calendar is a crucial tool for managing the challenges of publishing across multiple platforms. From newsrooms and magazine teams to broadcast outlets and corporate communications, it helps organizations maintain visibility, coordinate teams, and plan content with greater accuracy and accountability across editorial cycles.

AP Storytelling

AP Storytelling, developed by AP Workflow Solutions, is designed to support newsrooms managing complex editorial workflows across digital and broadcast environments. It enables teams to coordinate story planning, assignments, and production in a shared system, helping editors maintain oversight of coverage while adapting traditional newsroom workflows to modern, multi-platform publishing demands.

Alfamedia

AlfaMedia provides newsroom systems and applications designed to support long-term editorial and publishing operations. Its solutions help media organizations maintain stability in planning and production workflows while evolving their systems over time, supporting continuity and operational reliability across changing editorial requirements.

Atex

Atex delivers newsroom software solutions that support publishers in managing editorial planning, production, and publishing at scale. Its tools help organizations coordinate newsroom operations, adapt workflows to digital-first strategies, and support sustainable publishing models across platforms.

Naviga

Naviga Content Creation Suite enables newsrooms to plan, write, edit, and publish content for multiple platforms from a single interface. It helps editorial teams centralize workflows, reduce duplication across systems, and maintain consistency from planning through publication.

Peiq

With PEIQ PRINT, print production is generated in real time based on content from the digital editor. This allows publishers to retain control over print layouts while aligning print output more closely with digital-first editorial workflows, supporting hybrid publishing environments.

Kordiam

Kordiam is a content planning and assignment management tool designed for editorial, broadcast, and communications teams. It helps organizations coordinate long-term planning and day-to-day execution, maintain cross-team visibility, and manage editorial complexity across platforms by connecting planning workflows with existing tools through open APIs and integrations.

Note: Kordiam appears in multiple sections below because it is used across editorial, broadcast, and CMS-integrated planning workflows.

Broadcast Planning Tools

Broadcast planning tools are essential for managing the coordination, timing, and resource demands of live and multi-platform content delivery. They help broadcast teams align editorial intent with production execution, maintain real-time visibility, and manage complex workflows across shifts and channels.

Dalet

Dalet is a media operations platform used by broadcasters to manage planning, production, and multi-platform distribution. It supports teams in coordinating editorial workflows, managing media assets, and delivering content consistently across broadcast, web, and social channels within integrated environments.

Octopus Newsroom

Octopus News is a broadcast newsroom platform designed to support live and scheduled news production. It helps teams manage rundowns, coordinate editorial and production resources, and respond to real-time changes while integrating with broadcast and playout systems.

Wolftech

Wolftech is a story-centric planning and workflow platform used by broadcast organizations to manage news and live content production. It provides teams with shared visibility into stories, resources, and timelines, supporting coordination across editorial and production roles from planning through publishing.

Saganews

Saga is a cloud-native newsroom and rundown system built for modern broadcast workflows. It enables teams to plan and produce stories collaboratively across linear, digital, and social platforms, supporting real-time coordination and story-centric planning within a unified, browser-based environment.

AP Storytelling and AP ENPS

AP Workflow Solutions, including AP Storytelling and ENPS, supports broadcast newsrooms in managing content production and distribution. Together, these tools help organizations coordinate editorial planning, newsroom operations, and technical workflows while allowing teams to evolve processes without fully replacing existing systems.

Kordiam

Kordiam enables broadcast teams to plan, coordinate, and assign coverage across complex, multi-platform workflows. It provides a shared planning environment that helps teams maintain visibility over editorial intent, assignments, and timing across shifts, while integrating with existing newsroom, production, and publishing systems rather than replacing them.

CMS Plugins for Editorial Content Planning

These are either small tools that become part of the CMS or they are external tools with a very deep bi-directional integration with the CMS:

WordPress

Drupal

Joomla

Shack

All-in-one Publishing Suites and Content Management Systems

These all-in-one tools are built to cover as many needs of a newsroom or communication team as possible. In most cases, that includes a content calendar as part of the overall suite.

Digital Newsrooms

Print Newsrooms

Broadcast Newsrooms

Content Marketing & Communications

Generic Project Management Tools Used for Content Planning

There are plenty of task and project management tools out there. Some of them offer features or tweaks that can work as a content calendar, even if that’s not their main focus.

Choosing the Right Tool for Your Team

There are a lot of options out there, from lightweight plug-ins to full-scale publishing platforms. The best editorial content planning tool is the one that fits your team's goals, workflows, and the kind of content you produce.

In practice, editorial teams often choose:

Dedicated planning tools when visibility and coordination are the priority
Broadcast systems when live production and rundowns are central
CMS plugins when planning needs to stay tightly coupled to publishing
All-in-one platforms when organizations want a single vendor
Generic tools when no editorial-specific system is in place

This guide is here to help make that choice easier. Whether you're running a busy newsroom, planning marketing campaigns, or broadcast rundowns, there's something on this list that can work for you.

If you're curious about how these tools compare or want to learn more about how Kordiam fits in, we're always happy to chat.

FAQ - Best Editorial Content Planning Tools

What is an editorial planning tool and what is it used for?

An editorial planning tool helps newsrooms collect story ideas, assign tasks, coordinate publishing, and maintain visibility over work in progress. Unlike general project management tools, editorial systems are built around the specific demands of newsroom workflows, including status chains from story idea to publication, roles such as reporter, editor, and copy desk, and connections to publishing systems.

What does editorial planning involve in a newsroom?

Editorial planning describes the process by which a newsroom decides which content to cover, when to publish it, and which channels to use. This includes collecting and evaluating story ideas, assigning them to reporters, scheduling deadlines, coordinating with photo and graphics teams, and setting publication dates. Dedicated tools make this process transparent for everyone involved and reduce duplicated work.

How does an editorial workflow differ from a standard project workflow?

An editorial workflow typically follows recurring patterns such as story idea, research, writing, editing, image selection, approval, and publication. Unlike project-based workflows, these steps repeat daily or weekly across many parallel stories. Editorial software captures these recurring patterns as templates, so teams do not have to rebuild the structure for every story.

How do planning tools support multi-platform publishing?

Modern newsrooms publish the same or adapted content across website, newsletter, social media, app, and sometimes print. Planning tools bring all these channels into a shared view, so every story shows where, when, and in what form it will appear. This prevents coverage gaps and makes content reuse plannable.

What criteria matter most when choosing editorial software?

Key criteria include the number and type of channels you plan to manage, the size and structure of your team, the existing systems such as CMS or newsroom software the tool needs to integrate with, and how flexible the workflows and status models are. Hosting location, data protection requirements, and available APIs also matter depending on the organization.

Are Excel or Google Sheets enough for editorial planning?

For very small teams managing few channels, spreadsheets can work. Once multiple people work on different stories in parallel, several channels are involved, or status changes need to be tracked reliably, spreadsheets reach their limits. Common issues are missing version control, unclear ownership, and limited visibility across parallel work.