Newsjacking

I sat on a panel last week with David Meerman Scott, whose smarts and enthusiasm were boundless.

His latest book is called Newsjacking and it codifies a practice that we have long counseled our clients to adopt – inserting one’s organization into breaking news in a way that lets you harvest some of the attention. We used to call it “issue surfing.”

Newsjacking takes fast reflexes and good judgment. Fast reflexes because the news cycle, such as it is, is measurable in nanoseconds. Good judgment because when newsjacking goes wrong, it is an epic train wreck.