219 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
219 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
# Newsjacking — Reactive PR Workflow
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Injecting your POV into a story that's already trending. Done well: free distribution off a wave of attention. Done badly: cringe at best, brand damage at worst.
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## Contents
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- When newsjacking works (and when it doesn't)
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- The detect → score → angle → pitch loop
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- Newsworthiness scoring rubric
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- Story angle library
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- Speed: the only thing that matters
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- Sources & tooling
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- Failure modes
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---
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## When Newsjacking Works
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- **Tech/regulatory news in your category** — new law, new platform launch, competitor pivot, big acquisition
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- **Industry data drops** — a major report drops, you have a sharper take or contradicting data
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- **Public conversation** — a debate or controversy where your expertise is genuinely relevant
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- **Seasonal/cyclical moments** — earnings season, year-end reviews, conference weeks
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## When to Skip
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- **Tragedies, accidents, deaths** — no exceptions. Don't.
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- **Politically charged stories** unless your brand explicitly takes political stances
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- **You have no genuine expertise** in the area
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- **The window is already closed** — if a story is 48h+ old and you weren't first, you're late
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- **The angle is "we have a product for this"** — that's marketing, not journalism
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---
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## The Loop
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A repeatable workflow Claude can run on demand or daily.
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1. **Detect** — surface trending stories in your category (see [Sources & Tooling](#sources--tooling))
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2. **Score** — apply the [newsworthiness rubric](#newsworthiness-scoring-rubric); drop anything below threshold
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3. **Angle** — generate 2–3 angles per story using the [angle library](#story-angle-library)
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4. **Validate** — sanity-check: do you actually have the expertise/data to back this angle?
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5. **Pitch** — draft a tight pitch to 3–5 journalists who cover this beat (see [journalist-pitching.md](journalist-pitching.md))
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6. **Post** — also publish on your blog, LinkedIn, X — it builds the trail journalists check before quoting you
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Output format Claude should produce:
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```
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NEWSJACK CANDIDATE — 2026-06-10
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Story: "EU passes AI Act amendment requiring agent registration"
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Source: TechCrunch, 3h ago
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Score: 8/10 (high relevance, fresh, you have proprietary data)
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Angles:
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1. Data hot take: "Our analysis of 12,000 agent deployments shows 73% would fail this requirement"
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2. Contrarian: "Why the registration rule will hurt safety, not improve it"
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3. Customer story: "How [customer] is preparing — interview offer"
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Recommended: #1 (you have unique data, strongest hook)
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Pitch draft: [see journalist-pitching.md for template]
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Target journalists: [list with rationale]
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```
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---
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## Newsworthiness Scoring Rubric
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Score each candidate 1–10 on five dimensions, multiply by the weight, then sum. Max possible: 80 (10 × the 8x weight total).
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| Dimension | What it measures | Weight |
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|-----------|------------------|--------|
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| **Timeliness** | Story <24h old? Window still open? | 2x |
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| **Relevance** | Genuinely in your expertise area? | 2x |
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| **Angle uniqueness** | Can you say something no one else is saying? | 2x |
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| **Authority** | Do you have data, customers, or experience to back it? | 1x |
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| **Reach potential** | Will this story keep growing or has it peaked? | 1x |
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**Threshold:** weighted total ≥ 50/80. Below that, skip.
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**Auto-disqualify if:**
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- The story is about something tragic
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- Your angle is "I disagree" with nothing to back it
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- You haven't actually formed an opinion — you just want to be quoted
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---
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## Story Angle Library
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Use these templates to generate angles fast.
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### 1. Data hot take
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*"We analyzed [N] [things] after [event]. Here's what we found."*
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Best when you have proprietary data. The journalist gets a stat, you get the citation.
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### 2. Contrarian
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*"Everyone says [popular take]. Here's why they're wrong."*
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Best when you can defend the position with specifics. Weak when it's just contrarianism for attention.
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### 3. "We predicted this"
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*"Six months ago we wrote [thing] — here's what's happening now and what's next."*
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Best when you actually did predict it. Lethal to your credibility if you didn't.
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### 4. Customer impact
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*"Here's a [customer type] who's directly affected. We can put you in touch."*
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Best for B2B. Reporters love named customers willing to talk.
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### 5. Insider explainer
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*"This story is complicated. Here's what's actually happening."*
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Best when most coverage is missing nuance. You're not arguing — you're educating.
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### 6. Trend connector
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*"This isn't isolated — it's part of a bigger shift we're seeing in [pattern]."*
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Best when you have several data points or examples to connect.
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### 7. Founder POV
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*"As someone who's built in this space for [X years], here's the part most people are missing."*
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Best for opinion pieces / op-eds. Weak as a soundbite pitch.
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---
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## Speed: The Only Thing That Matters
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Newsjacking decays fast. Approximate windows:
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| Story type | Effective window |
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|-----------|------------------|
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| Breaking tech news | 4–12 hours |
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| Major regulation / policy | 24–48 hours |
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| Industry report / data drop | 24–72 hours |
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| Conference announcement | Same day |
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| Acquisition / funding news | 12–24 hours |
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**Implication:** if you can't draft and send within the window, don't bother. Set up the loop so detection → pitch takes <2 hours.
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---
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## Sources & Tooling
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Reuses tooling from the `social` skill's listening workflow. Same install: `brew install jq`.
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### Google News RSS (no auth)
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```bash
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# Replace QUERY with topic (use + for spaces, %22 for quotes)
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curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=QUERY&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en" \
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| xmllint --xpath "//item[position()<11]" - 2>/dev/null
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```
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### Hacker News (Algolia) for tech stories
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```bash
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SINCE=$(($(date +%s) - 86400))
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curl -s "https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search_by_date?query=QUERY&tags=story&numericFilters=created_at_i>${SINCE}" \
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| jq '.hits[] | {title, url, points, num_comments, created_at, hn_url: ("https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id="+.objectID)}'
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```
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### Reddit (for category-specific subs)
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```bash
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curl -s -A "newsjack/1.0" \
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/SUBREDDIT/top.json?t=day&limit=15" \
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| jq '.data.children[].data | {title, url, score, num_comments, created_utc}'
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```
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### Journalist research (browser-driven)
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For finding *which* journalists are covering the story right now:
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- **dev-browser** → Google News search for the story → click through to articles → note the bylines
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- Then go to those journalists' X / LinkedIn / Muck Rack profile to confirm beat and recent coverage
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See also [journalist-pitching.md](journalist-pitching.md) for the full discovery workflow.
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### Source list
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For repeatable monitoring, add a "Newsjacking topics" section to `.agents/listening-sources.md` (template in the `social` skill's references):
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```markdown
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## Newsjacking topics (Google News RSS)
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- "AI agent regulation"
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- "[your category] funding"
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- "[your competitors] OR [adjacent competitors]"
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## Industry data drops (RSS / manual)
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- Pitchbook reports
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- a16z state of [industry] reports
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- [your category] benchmark reports
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```
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---
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## Failure Modes
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Things that have ended careers and brands.
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- **Tragedy-jacking** — Oreo's 2013 Super Bowl tweet worked. Most attempts since have not. Wartime, disasters, deaths: don't.
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- **The forced fit** — "Here's our take on [trending story] — it's actually about [our product]." Journalists see through this instantly.
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- **The empty take** — pitching "we have an opinion" without specifics. Journalists need a quote-worthy line, not "we're closely watching this."
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- **Speed without judgment** — being first with a bad take is worse than being late with a good one. The 30-minute "is this brand-appropriate?" gut check exists for a reason.
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- **Pitching the same angle to 50 journalists** — they talk. Get caught once, lose the relationships.
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- **No follow-through** — pitch goes out, journalist responds in 20 minutes, founder takes 6 hours to reply. Story moves on.
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---
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## Companion Practice: The Public Trail
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Every newsjack pitch is stronger if the journalist can find evidence you've been thinking about this publicly. Before pitching:
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1. Publish a short post (blog, LinkedIn, X thread) with your take
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2. Reference it in the pitch ("more thinking here: [link]")
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3. This signals you're not opportunistic — you're an actual voice in the space
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If you don't have time to publish, you're probably not ready to pitch.
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