Editors’ guidelines

This breaks down the role of the daily editor, which is to read posts, edit them, and schedule them for times to go live.

Daily editor rotation 2024:
  • Monday – Anna Grillo
  • Tuesday – Kristin Lingrel
  • Wednesday – Anna Grillo
  • Thursday – Kristin Lingrel
  • Friday – Kate Jackson
  • Saturday – Matt Custer (Away Games)  Home Games TBA
  • Sunday –
Posting times

Posts should ideally go live at intervals of 30-45 minutes, starting around 9 a.m. with the daily news roundup. The idea is to get a regular influx of copy in the morning hours and to have it all live by lunchtime. That said, if you have something to post in the afternoon hours, do it.

Sub-queues: Pending & Draft

Posts should be moved into the Pending sub-queue after 12 p.m. the day before they are set to go live. This is for organizational purposes and should be done whether the post is edited or not. There are two ways to do this:

  1. Under the Publish section of post, change Status from Draft to Pending.
  2. In the Posts queue, click Quick Edit beneath a post and change Status from Draft to Pending.

Example: It’s 12:15 on Monday. Every planned post for Monday has gone live. Now, editors/writers can set at Pending any draft scheduled for Tuesday. You will see these posts in the Pending sub-queue available to click at the top of the Posts queue in the Dashboard.

(NOTE: In time, we will direct writers to move their own posts into this queue. For now, we’re testing out how this process works among just the daily editors and acting managing editor.) 

Subtitles

Subtitles should be set Headline 5 and bold-faced. Like headlines, subtitles should be capitalized like sentences (i.e. AP style), not titles of books.

Daily news roundups

This should be the first post of the day, ideally running at 9 am and no later than 10:30. If you have a heavy day, you can run the roundup earlier to space out posts more. Use your judgment.

Last post

Generally save the day’s best post for last, because that will be the first post that readers see when they come to the site in the afternoon hours.

Featured categories

Below the top slider is what we call the “second tier.” Those are posts that will sit there for a while. They’re not the newest posts, but they’re good ones we want to draw attention to. You organize these in the WPZOOM menu under Home Page/Featured Category Blocks.

Change these up on a regular basis to ensure that good posts are not buried immediately at times of heavy content. (Unfortunately, this requires an administrator. Dan, Adam and Pete can hit this.)

Horizontal photos

For featured photos, always use photos that are wider than they are tall. That’s because our website’s format is such that the featured photo will always be displayed as a horizontally oriented rectangle. If you don’t do this, it will distort the photos. 600 x 400 is the best ratio.

Photo credits/copyrights

Aim to use photos from our library whenever possible. If you have to grab photos from the Internet, take them from sources that will not come after you for copyright matters, such as the Union, Bethlehem Steel, colleges, people’s own Twitter/Instagram feeds, the social media networks for the professional clubs, etc. NEVER take a photo from a newspaper, magazine, Getty Images or something similar, as they hold the copyright and will come after you to defend it. Similarly, be careful with U.S. Soccer. We’ve had problems with them before.

Format tricks: Subtitles, bulletpoints, etc.

Studies show that readers tend toward skimming online, rather than reading closely, if you give them big walls of text. Here’s how to break that up.

  • Break posts up into shorter, newspaper-style paragraphs, usually 1-4 sentences. Avoid walls of text.
  • If a post runs over 600 words, start thinking about adding subtitles to it. Use your judgment though. If it flows well without it, don’t.
  • If a post runs over 800 words, then definitely add subtitles.
  • Bulletpointed and numbered lists are good ways to break up a post.
  • Feel free to add additional images if you like.
Delaying a post till the next day

If you have a particularly heavy day — six or more posts — and you think a piece should and can be held till the next day, then hold it. This is your prerogative. Just let the next day’s editor know.

Style guide and more
What to expect: Notes
  • The ideal day is probably 4-5 posts.
  • Content generally slows in the off-season and bye weeks.
  • Podcasts are worth keeping in the second tier of featured categories for a few days because people tend to listen to them later, when people have time, as opposed to when they first see the post. The KYW Philly Soccer Show, in particular, should be held on the second tier the longest, even as long as five days when prudent. It’s an important partnership that gives PSP credibility, and more importantly, it usually has good interviews with key local soccer people.