News jacking – how to hijack a news story

Newsjacking by David Meerman Scott

My favourite marketing author David Meerman Scott has just released a new book today called Newsjacking.  Well it’s not literally a book as we used to know them.  It’s  only available as an instant digital download on Kindle or iPad, not as a printed version.

Newsjacking is term David uses to describe the practice of high jacking a news story.  It is done by astute marketers who publish real-time content that fuels a reporter’s desire for a unique angle on a breaking story.

The result: tons of media coverage, worth a fortune, that would normally be completely impossible to obtain.

Chilean Miners

The case study that I am most familiar with is the 33 Chilean miners who emerged from being trapped underground and were handed Oakley sunnies to protect their eyes from the sunlight. This real-time decision earned Oakley over $40 million worth of media exposure!

The same can happen with a timely blog post or tweet that attracts the attention of the news hungry journalists. When you notice an announcement in your industry (please be tracking these with Google Alerts!)  David urges you to post a timely response providing your take on the situation that will ideally be fodder for reporters to use in the second paragraph of their stories.

He also mentions you are much more likely to earn some press coverage if the original announcement doesn’t provide the full story or is full of bland, uninteresting gobbledy-gook corporate speak.

How to hijack a news story

The great news is that kind of stuff isn’t dictated by luck, it can be planned for: provided you have a real-time mindset and a culture that encourages initiative. David even shares his tips for doing so:

1. Find news to hijack
2. Formulate a strategy in real-time
3. Instantly get your take into the market

For more

I really enjoy David’s books and I love the challenge of implementing his strategies.  Previously when I’ve done what he says, it’s worked, so this latest one, Newsjacking will be exciting to put into practice.

It’s available on Amazon for $7.99 and is a nice, easy read and full of concise, actionable ideas. Highly recommended.   If you like, you can follow @dmscott on twitter.

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