What Does it Mean to "Kill" or Remove a Story in WebSked?

The WebSked team has deprecated the feature that enables users to "kill" a story or remove it from WebSked's List View and Calendar. Instead the team recommends that you set up a new Workflow Status for stories that you need to remove from the regular workflow. This document on Using Using Workflow Status in Place of Remove/Restore walks through the process.

When a story flows into WebSked and the editorial decision makers decide not to run or publish the story, they may wish to “kill” it or remove it from the schedule. The “Remove story” function in WebSked allows you to remove the story from the editorial workflow without deleting the story entirely. Anyone following the story’s progress will be able to see, at a glance, that the piece is no longer being pursued.

Below, you will see a full definition of what this function does within Arc, how to remove and restore a story, and what the impact is for “Remove story” across the other Arc tools.

Funny enough, “remove story” doesn’t actually remove the story from the Arc ecosystem; to fully remove a story from Arc, you may delete it. The “remove story” functionality allows editorial decision makers to determine which content they wish to move forward with and which stories won’t be published and do not warrant further elaboration at this time. However, rather than delete these story stubs and ideas, many organizations prefer to use the “remove story” function so that a record of the story remains in the system and can be easily recovered if and when the story merits further consideration.

To make a long story short, using the “remove story” functionality in WebSked provides a prominent visual cue that a certain piece of content should not form part of the publication workflow, but it does not eliminate the story from the system.

To use the “Remove story” function within WebSked, start by accessing the story preview by either clicking on the headline or by selecting “Preview” within the story card’s three-dot menu. Within the preview, you’ll see a red trash can button. By clicking here, you’ll be removing the story from the schedule, and a large red banner reading “Story has been removed from the schedule” will appear within the story card.

The banner will show on the story card within the Stories view as well as within any Platforms where the story has been pitched. It will also be visible any time a user accesses the story preview from within WebSked.

If you ever wish to restore a story to your workflow, you’ll go back to the story’s preview within WebSked and select the “Restore story” option. This will remove the red banner from the story card.