2026 is the year we develop editorial intelligence

It’s no longer novel to create content. 

And that’s because everyone is doing it. The founder of an AI startup. Your Gen Z neighbor. The entrepreneur you follow on Instagram. Our feeds are flooded with volume-driven media, performative thought leadership, and AI-amplified noise. 

In a world where content output has become easier and faster, meaning has become scarce. The more content we have, the harder it is to discern what should get made in the first place.

That’s where the advantage lies. 

Where everyone (and everything) can be a content creator, not everyone has the judgment to know what to create. 

And that is what will define this next era of content creation. 

Or as I like to call it—editorial intelligence. 

The problem isn’t that there is too much content. It’s that fewer people are deciding what deserves attention, what should be ignored, what needs context, and what needs restraint.

It’s easy for a content decision-maker to ship a piece of content because their competitor is or because the industry playbook tells them to. But it takes judgment to discern whether it’s worth publishing to push the brand narrative forward, or if it just ends up being noise.

Editorial intelligence is the ability to decide what matters, how it should be framed, and when it deserves attention.

It’s the human skill that protects the meaning, coherence, and trust of the content produced. Editorial intelligence prioritizes judgment over output, interpretation over reaction, and coherence over volume.

Editorial intelligence is not about creating more, but rather understanding the role the content plays in a broader brand and cultural landscape. It’s how we make sense of the moment without being consumed by it. It’s about editing and curation, taking a step back to view the work as a whole.

Where content creation focuses on output and filling, editorial intelligence focuses on coherence, building an archive through trust, narrative consistency, cultural relevance, and meaning over the long term. 

Editorial intelligence appears through:

In other words, you’re thinking like a publisher, not a creator. 

Editorial intelligence operates through three fundamental actions: selection, framing, and timing.

In the selection process, you’re deciding what matters.

This includes:

For brand leaders, this means seeing concepts and ideas through the lens of your brand—your strategy, goals, voice, etc. It’s knowing what to mine and capitalize on versus what to leave alone. 

As they say in marketing, when you’re speaking to everyone, you’re talking to no one. The same concept applies here. The more “relevant” you try to be by participating in every trend and conversation, the more irrelevant you actually are because you’re not saying something different from what already exists. 

The goal here is filtering out what’s relevant as it relates to the conversations you’re leading, the perspectives you hold, and the points of view you want to be known for. 

Framing is the process of deciding how something should be understood.

This includes:

Framing is interpretation, not opinion. It’s an informed critique that comes from a place of experience and interpretation backed up by data and facts.

This is where POV and perspective come into play. Through framing, you can show your expertise, thought process, and insights on a particular topic. It’s your opportunity to connect the disparate concepts to create new frameworks, concepts, and ideas. 

Framing is when content goes from generic to a unique differentiator. 

Timing is deciding when something deserves attention.

This includes:

The goal isn’t to produce as fast as you can to capitalize on the moment, but rather focus on the quality of what’s being created (slow content, if you will). 

It’s about making sure the story is sound and that whatever is put out ties back to your goals, the core thesis of what you want to be known for, and feels unique and authentic to your voice and perspective. 

Editorial intelligence isn’t about creating more content, but helping you decide what content actually matters. In an age where we have access to infinite information at our fingertips, it’s going to become a skill to discern and judge what becomes narrative versus what’s just noise. It won’t be enough just to know how to create, but rather what we’re creating and why we’re creating in the first place. Only then will we be able to preserve any meaning content has left.