Newshacking vs. newsjacking: 3 tips for crafting timely pitches

Another is to get ahead of the news curve.

“We call this ‘newshacking,'” says Greg Matusky, president of Gregory FCA. “Instead of just riding the coattails of breaking news, newshacking is reverse-engineering the news cycle and using it to your advantage while eliminating reputational risks.”

Matusky says newshacking is more effective, because you don’t have to compete with the news and others tying to it. Here are three tips for implementing both approaches:

1. Stay on top of media outlets that look ahead. Plant your stories in incendiary digital media properties such as Buzzfeed, The Verge and Mashable that drive other coverage.

Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight site is particularly influential. It features stories driven by data and is “one of the key places where stories are birthed,” says Matusky. “It’s a prime target if you can uncover a strong data-driven story.”