diff -r 51bea2402bba -r e8befd0dd932 src/pyams_content/shared/blog/zmi/manager.py
--- a/src/pyams_content/shared/blog/zmi/manager.py	Tue Jun 05 16:51:00 2018 +0200
+++ b/src/pyams_content/shared/blog/zmi/manager.py	Tue Jun 05 17:05:17 2018 +0200
@@ -14,6 +14,9 @@
 
 
 # import standard library
+from datetime import datetime
+
+# import interfaces
 from pyams_content.interfaces import MANAGE_SITE_ROOT_PERMISSION, MANAGE_SITE_PERMISSION
 from pyams_content.root.interfaces import ISiteRoot
 from pyams_content.shared.blog.interfaces import IBlogManager, IBlogManagerFactory
@@ -25,8 +28,6 @@
 from pyams_workflow.interfaces import IWorkflowPublicationInfo
 from pyams_zmi.interfaces.menu import IPropertiesMenu, ISiteManagementMenu
 from pyams_zmi.layer import IAdminLayer
-
-# import interfaces
 from z3c.form.interfaces import IDataExtractedEvent
 
 # import packages
@@ -38,6 +39,7 @@
 from pyams_skin.viewlet.toolbar import ToolbarMenuItem
 from pyams_utils.adapter import adapter_config, ContextRequestAdapter
 from pyams_utils.registry import query_utility
+from pyams_utils.timezone import tztime
 from pyams_utils.unicode import translate_string
 from pyams_utils.url import absolute_url
 from pyams_viewlet.viewlet import viewlet_config
@@ -186,6 +188,13 @@
     ajax_handler = 'workflow-publication.json'
     edit_permission = MANAGE_SITE_PERMISSION
 
+    def updateWidgets(self, prefix=None):
+        super(BlogManagerWorkflowPublicationEditForm, self).updateWidgets(prefix)
+        if 'publication_effective_date' in self.widgets:
+            widget = self.widgets['publication_effective_date']
+            if not widget.value:
+                widget.value = tztime(datetime.utcnow()).strftime('%d/%m/%y %H:%M')
+
 
 @view_config(name='workflow-publication.json', context=IBlogManager, request_type=IPyAMSLayer,
              permission=MANAGE_SITE_PERMISSION, renderer='json', xhr=True)