Editorial workflow templates for modern newsrooms

What is a workflow?

A workflow is the sequence of states an article moves through from creation to publication. Journalify ships with sensible defaults, but every newsroom is different — workflows are fully customisable.

Default workflow

New newsrooms start with a 4-state workflow: Draft → In Review → Approved → Published. Each state has rules about who can edit, who can advance, and what notifications fire.

Building a custom workflow

1. Settings → Workflows → New workflow.
2. Name it (e.g., "Politics desk", "Investigative pieces").
3. Add states. For each state, define who can edit (any role) and who can advance to the next state.
4. Add transitions between states. A state can have multiple outgoing transitions ("Approve" or "Reject and return to draft").
5. Set notifications: who gets emailed when an article enters each state?
6. Optionally restrict the workflow to specific departments or article types.

Common patterns

Two-editor approval

For investigative or sensitive stories, require approval from two different editors before an article reaches Approved state. Add an intermediate state "Senior review" that requires a different reviewer than "Editor review".

Legal review

Add a "Legal review" state for stories about ongoing legal cases. Restrict transitions out of this state to your legal counsel role.

Translation pipeline

For multilingual newsrooms, add a "Translation pending" state after Approved. Use the AI assistant to draft initial translations, then route to human translators for review.