diff --git a/docs/core_components/pages/editing_api.rst b/docs/core_components/pages/editing_api.rst
index 3c5c790d0..a228421ea 100644
--- a/docs/core_components/pages/editing_api.rst
+++ b/docs/core_components/pages/editing_api.rst
@@ -376,6 +376,40 @@ For more on ``django-modelcluster``, visit `the django-modelcluster github proje
 .. _the django-modelcluster github project page: https://github.com/torchbox/django-modelcluster
 
 
+.. _customising_the_tabbed_interface:
+
+Customising the tabbed interface
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+.. versionadded:: 0.9
+
+As standard, Wagtail organises panels into three tabs: 'Content', 'Promote' and 'Settings'. Depending on the requirements of your site, you may wish to customise this for specific page types - for example, adding an additional tab for sidebar content. This can be done by specifying an ``edit_handler`` property on the page model. For example:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    from wagtail.wagtailadmin.edit_handlers import TabbedInterface, ObjectList
+
+    class BlogPage(Page):
+        # field definitions omitted
+
+    BlogPage.content_panels = [
+        FieldPanel('title', classname="full title"),
+        FieldPanel('date'),
+        FieldPanel('body', classname="full"),
+    ]
+    BlogPage.sidebar_content_panels = [
+        SnippetChooserPanel('advert', Advert),
+        InlinePanel('related_links', label="Related links"),
+    ]
+
+    BlogPage.edit_handler = TabbedInterface([
+        ObjectList(BlogPage.content_panels, heading='Content'),
+        ObjectList(BlogPage.sidebar_content_panels, heading='Sidebar content'),
+        ObjectList(BlogPage.promote_panels, heading='Promote'),
+        ObjectList(BlogPage.settings_panels, heading='Settings', classname="settings"),
+    ])
+
+
 .. _extending_wysiwyg:
 
 Extending the WYSIWYG Editor (hallo.js)
diff --git a/wagtail/tests/models.py b/wagtail/tests/models.py
index 59c20d4e5..bb6f5f007 100644
--- a/wagtail/tests/models.py
+++ b/wagtail/tests/models.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ from modelcluster.tags import ClusterTaggableManager
 
 from wagtail.wagtailcore.models import Page, Orderable
 from wagtail.wagtailcore.fields import RichTextField
-from wagtail.wagtailadmin.edit_handlers import FieldPanel, MultiFieldPanel, InlinePanel, PageChooserPanel
+from wagtail.wagtailadmin.edit_handlers import FieldPanel, MultiFieldPanel, InlinePanel, PageChooserPanel, TabbedInterface, ObjectList
 from wagtail.wagtailimages.edit_handlers import ImageChooserPanel
 from wagtail.wagtaildocs.edit_handlers import DocumentChooserPanel
 from wagtail.wagtailforms.models import AbstractEmailForm, AbstractFormField
@@ -393,15 +393,27 @@ class StandardIndex(Page):
     parent_page_types = []
 
 
+# A custom panel setup where all Promote fields are placed in the Content tab instead;
+# we use this to test that the 'promote' tab is left out of the output when empty
 StandardIndex.content_panels = [
     FieldPanel('title', classname="full title"),
+    FieldPanel('seo_title'),
+    FieldPanel('slug'),
     InlinePanel('advert_placements', label="Adverts"),
 ]
+StandardIndex.promote_panels = []
 
 
 class StandardChild(Page):
     pass
 
+# Test overriding edit_handler with a custom one
+StandardChild.edit_handler = TabbedInterface([
+    ObjectList(StandardChild.content_panels, heading='Content'),
+    ObjectList(StandardChild.promote_panels, heading='Promote'),
+    ObjectList(StandardChild.settings_panels, heading='Settings', classname='settings'),
+    ObjectList([], heading='Dinosaurs'),
+])
 
 class BusinessIndex(Page):
     """ Can be placed anywhere, can only have Business children """
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/test_pages_views.py b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/test_pages_views.py
index de8b2fb2b..be6cc6a26 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/test_pages_views.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/test_pages_views.py
@@ -158,6 +158,27 @@ class TestPageCreation(TestCase, WagtailTestUtils):
     def test_create_simplepage(self):
         response = self.client.get(reverse('wagtailadmin_pages_create', args=('tests', 'simplepage', self.root_page.id)))
         self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
+        self.assertContains(response, '<a href="#content" class="active">Content</a>')
+        self.assertContains(response, '<a href="#promote" class="">Promote</a>')
+
+    def test_create_page_without_promote_tab(self):
+        """
+        Test that the Promote tab is not rendered for page classes that define it as empty
+        """
+        response = self.client.get(reverse('wagtailadmin_pages_create', args=('tests', 'standardindex', self.root_page.id)))
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
+        self.assertContains(response, '<a href="#content" class="active">Content</a>')
+        self.assertNotContains(response, '<a href="#promote" class="">Promote</a>')
+
+    def test_create_page_with_custom_tabs(self):
+        """
+        Test that custom edit handlers are rendered
+        """
+        response = self.client.get(reverse('wagtailadmin_pages_create', args=('tests', 'standardchild', self.root_page.id)))
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
+        self.assertContains(response, '<a href="#content" class="active">Content</a>')
+        self.assertContains(response, '<a href="#promote" class="">Promote</a>')
+        self.assertContains(response, '<a href="#dinosaurs" class="">Dinosaurs</a>')
 
     def test_create_simplepage_bad_permissions(self):
         # Remove privileges from user
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/views/pages.py b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/views/pages.py
index a9c5c6fe5..f4c5c675d 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/views/pages.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/views/pages.py
@@ -707,11 +707,24 @@ PAGE_EDIT_HANDLERS = {}
 
 def get_page_edit_handler(page_class):
     if page_class not in PAGE_EDIT_HANDLERS:
-        PAGE_EDIT_HANDLERS[page_class] = TabbedInterface([
-            ObjectList(page_class.content_panels, heading='Content'),
-            ObjectList(page_class.promote_panels, heading='Promote'),
-            ObjectList(page_class.settings_panels, heading='Settings', classname="settings")
-        ]).bind_to_model(page_class)
+        if hasattr(page_class, 'edit_handler'):
+            # use the edit handler specified on the page class
+            edit_handler = page_class.edit_handler
+        else:
+            # construct a TabbedInterface made up of content_panels, promote_panels
+            # and settings_panels, skipping any which are empty
+            tabs = []
+
+            if page_class.content_panels:
+                tabs.append(ObjectList(page_class.content_panels, heading='Content'))
+            if page_class.promote_panels:
+                tabs.append(ObjectList(page_class.promote_panels, heading='Promote'))
+            if page_class.settings_panels:
+                tabs.append(ObjectList(page_class.settings_panels, heading='Settings', classname="settings"))
+
+            edit_handler = TabbedInterface(tabs)
+
+        PAGE_EDIT_HANDLERS[page_class] = edit_handler.bind_to_model(page_class)
 
     return PAGE_EDIT_HANDLERS[page_class]