Find a calculator ↗Editorial Team Article Capacity Calculator
Estimate how many articles a writing and editing team can complete per week. Identify which stage limits planned output.
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What is this editorial team article capacity calculator?
This calculator compares whole-article writing and editing capacity and reports the smaller amount. It models a steady editorial workflow in which both stages have work available. An article needs capacity at both stages before it can count toward sustained output.
How to use the calculator
Enter the number of writers and their productive weekly hours, then average writing time per article. Repeat for editors and review effort. Exclude meetings, leave, and unrelated duties from the available hours. Use realistic averages for comparable articles.
Check the input assumptions
Review the help text beneath each field before calculating. Enter amounts in US dollars where shown and use consistent units. Change one assumption at a time to understand which inputs affect your result.
Formula and worked example
Example calculation
Two writers with 20 productive hours each and four hours per article can draft 10 articles weekly. One editor with 12 hours and 1.5 hours per article can review eight. Editing limits sustained output to eight articles per week.
These numbers illustrate the calculation; they are not recommended rates or industry benchmarks.
How to interpret your result
Adding people to the non-limiting stage may increase work waiting for review without increasing finished output. Use the result to investigate the bottleneck, while protecting the time needed for quality checks.
What the estimate leaves out
The model excludes startup timing, revision loops, approvals, design, and publishing capacity. It assumes comparable articles and available work at each stage. It cannot provide a deadline for an individual article.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the smaller capacity determine output?
Each article must pass through both writing and editing. The slower stage limits the long-run completed flow in this simplified model.
Does this predict the first week of a new project?
No. Editors may wait for drafts at startup. The estimate assumes a steady flow with work ready at both stages.
Can the same person write and edit?
Yes, but split their available hours between the two stages. Do not assign the same working hours to both.
Why round downward?
The estimate reports fully supported whole articles per week. Fractional effort can carry forward in practice but is not shown as a completed article.
Does adding writers always increase output?
No. If editing already limits capacity, more writing capacity alone will not increase this model’s finished output.
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