Newsjacking - what it is and how to do it
Newsjacking is an amazing way to create coverage opportunities for yourself without having to have a big pitch ready to go. It can be an easy way to generate regular features for you and your business and helps you stay relevant between those bigger pieces.
What is newsjacking?
Newsjacking is where you ‘hijack’ a news story that’s already circulating by offering your own fresh, expert opinion on it.
An example of this would be:
Everyone’s talking about a new fad diet trend a celebrity mentioned in an interview recently. The story blew up, then went viral on social media and now various newspapers and magazines are also starting to cover it. As a qualified nutritionist, you might have some valid opinions on this topic to weigh in with that you see the media hasn’t covered yet. You decide to send an email to a journalist who works in a relevant department at a magazine (for example, you might contact a journalist for the ‘Wellness’ or ‘News’ section somewhere) and suggest to them that you could share comment on this topic from a so-far-not-covered point of view. They take you up on it, send you some questions, then write up the piece with your quotes in. Bingo - you’ve got yourself a piece of coverage by responding to the news.
This is newsjacking.
Ok… but how is this different to answering the ‘why now?’ question in another pitch?
You might remember I wrote a newsletter all about answering the ‘why now?’ question in a pitch. This is different because, instead of finding something currently relevant to justify a pitch idea you already had, with newsjacking, you’re using a current news story as the basis for the pitch.
So here’s how to do it
Take note of any ‘big’ news stories in your field
This could be something you actively look for, or a story that has come onto your radar because it’s blowing up online or on social media (as in the example I gave above). These stories usually revolve around a shocking new statistic, a big new social media trend, a celebrity doing or saying something controversial or a tv show/ film/ new album that covers a controversial or shocking topic.
See if your point of view is covered
Now you’ve seen that this story is circulating, take a look at some of the top story hits on Google to see if an expert like you has been called upon to give your point of view. If you have an opinion on it that’s not yet been covered, this signifies a perfect opportunity for you to jump on the idea.
Research/ Contact relevant journalists
As I always say, you need to target appropriate journalists. This means you need to be looking for journalists who’d typically cover the kind of idea you have - either because they work for the section it falls under or they specifically cover this topic regularly. You might find them in The Scoop’s database, or from your own research. Either way, you need their email address.
Send them a quick email
Email them quickly (time is of the essence when it comes to newsjacking) explaining what your expertise is, that you’ve seen this story being covered but that you haven’t seen a particularly relevant point of view covered. Give them some bullet points of what you can offer on the topic, make it clear how they can contact you and that you’re prepared to answer questions quickly.
Be prepared to answer quickly
As I said before, newsjacking happens quickly - it’s you jumping on a story that’s already in the news cycle, so there’s not time to sit on your laurels here. If a journalist wants to take you up on their idea, be prepared for them to come back to you with questions they expect answering within a couple of hours.
The turnaround is quick on this one and does require some effort on your part, but the outcomes can be amazing.
