Rubrics

A rubric is an ongoing theme your publication comes back to: "Investigations", "Interviews", "Field notes". It has a name, a line of description and a thumbnail. What you put in it shows the rubric's name in red capitals above its own name, the way a magazine labels its sections, and readers get a page that gathers everything in it.

What can go in a rubric

Articles, zines, coverages, events, blurbs and posts. An item is in at most one rubric, and the rubric has to belong to the same publication as the item. Putting an item in another rubric moves it out of the first.

Making a rubric

Open the Editorial tab in Studio, then Rubrics. The list works like your other Studio lists: a search, the status filter and a card for each rubric. Click "New rubric" and fill in:

• The thumbnail, a square picture.
• The name, shown in capitals above what's in the rubric.
• A line or two about what it covers.
• Who can read what's published in it: free for everyone, or paid members. See "Reserving a rubric for paid members" below.

The rubric is published as soon as you create it. A second step then offers to add content to it right away, or you can do it later from its card.

A rubric's card shows its thumbnail and name, how many items are published in it and, once readers have subscribed, how many receive it and how many muted it.

Putting content in a rubric, or taking it out

There are two ways:

• From the rubric. Its card has an "Add or take out content" button. The window ("Add content to it, or take it out") has a search, a list of what is in the rubric and a list of what is in no rubric yet. Add an item from the second list, take one out from the first. Items that already sit in another rubric aren't offered here: move them from their own editor.
• From the item. The editors of articles, zines, coverages, events and posts have a Rubric field near the top. In its select, "New rubric" is the first choice: it makes a rubric on the spot and picks it. "No rubric" comes next.

Blurbs have no Rubric field in their editor. Add them from the rubric's window.

What readers see

• The pre-title. The rubric's name appears in red capitals above the name of each item in it, on its card and on its page. It links to the rubric's page.
• The rubric's page, at /rubric/<name>-<id> on your publication's address. It shows the rubric's thumbnail, name and description, then everything published in it, newest first, each drawn the way it is drawn in a feed. Posts come last. "More" loads the next ones.
• A feed. The same address ending in /feed is an RSS feed of the rubric, newest first, so a reader can follow one rubric in their feed reader.

An archived rubric keeps its content but isn't an active theme anymore: its page says nothing new is published in it, and its name shows above its items without a link. A removed rubric disappears from everywhere.

Reserving a rubric for paid members

Setting a rubric to "Paid members" asks every reader of what's in it to be a paid member of your publication. It adds to what each item already asks for, it doesn't replace it. In an item's publish window, a note tells you when its rubric adds a requirement ("Paid members, from its rubric Investigations"). The rubric's grade keeps applying when the rubric is archived.

Readers can stop receiving a rubric

Each email sent for an article, an event or a zine that is in a rubric has a "Stop receiving [rubric]" link in its footer, next to the unsubscribe link. It opens a page that mutes that rubric for that subscriber at once, without signing in, and offers an undo right below. The reader stays subscribed to your publication and still receives everything else; they just no longer get emails for what's published in that rubric. New rubrics are received by default.

Showing a rubric on a page

In the page editor, the Rubric stories block shows the articles, zines, coverages and events of one of your rubrics: the newest takes the height of the screen and stays in view while the others scroll beside it. Pick the rubric, and which kinds of content to show (all four by default). If you haven't made a rubric yet, the block asks you to make one first. See Website & Pages.

Related

Series are the other way to group content: in a fixed order, numbered, with parts that follow one another.