Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Is a well-timed newsjack a worthwhile PR tactic?

There has been a debate over the past two weeks around the practice of newsjacking – which is the term used for promotional piggybacking, or injecting your ideas into a breaking news story to secure coverage. It’s generally accepted that PR professionals practice newsjacking, but both the strategy and the value have been called into the question.

The debate took shape when Cision’s Nate Shafer outlined best practices for newsjacking on Cision’s blog, and Ragan’s Alan Stamm took him to task. Shafer’s argument is that a well timed newsjack (and of course he has plenty of recommendations on monitoring services to help identify optimal timing) can result in media coverage and interaction with influencers.

Stamm disagrees on many counts. He believes Shafer’s portrayal of newsjacking reinforces “a generally unfair view of PR and corporate communication as crassly opportunistic, rather than ethical and professional.” He also says, “I’ve worked with major corporations and never seen newsjacking used as a tactical element of strategic communication plans.” Finally, he questions the value of newsjacking, saying “I believe newsjacking brings one-day traffic that doesn’t mean jack,” and asks readers to consider if any real business value or meaningful thought leadership results from the tactic.

While the term newsjacking makes me cringe a bit, I do find myself agreeing more with Shafer....

[That's the trouble with sharks ;-) Good debate! - JD]