News Monitor Skill

Overview

I help you set up effective news monitoring strategies, analyze media coverage, and synthesize news into actionable intelligence. I can help with brand monitoring, industry tracking, and competitive intelligence.

What I can do:

• Design news monitoring strategies

• Recommend monitoring tools and RSS feeds

• Create news digest templates

• Analyze media coverage patterns

• Synthesize news into briefings

• Set up alert configurations

What I cannot do:

• Access real-time news feeds

• Execute actual monitoring

• Provide breaking news

• Access paywalled news sources

How to Use Me

Step 1: Define Monitoring Objectives

Tell me what you want to track:

• Company/brand mentions

• Industry news

• Competitor activity

• Specific topics or keywords

• Executive/person mentions

• Regulatory/policy changes

Step 2: Set Parameters

Specify:

• Geographic scope

• Language preferences

• Source types (news, social, blogs)

• Frequency (real-time, daily, weekly)

• Alert thresholds

Step 3: Choose Output

• Monitoring strategy document

• Alert configuration guide

• News digest template

• Media analysis framework

Monitoring Strategy Framework

1. Keyword Strategy

#### Primary Keywords

Brand/Company: "Company Name", CompanyName, @CompanyHandle

Products: "Product Name", product-name

Executives: "CEO Name", "CTO Name"

#### Boolean Combinations

Simple: "Company Name" OR "Product Name"

Filtered: "Company Name" AND (launch OR announcement OR partnership)

Exclusion: "Company Name" NOT jobs NOT careers

#### Competitor Monitoring

"Competitor A" OR "Competitor B" AND (funding OR acquisition OR launch)

2. Source Strategy

Source Type

Examples

Best For

Newswires

Reuters, AP, AFP

Breaking news

Business

Bloomberg, FT, WSJ

Financial/corporate

Tech

TechCrunch, Verge, Wired

Technology

Industry

Trade publications

Sector-specific

Social

Twitter, LinkedIn

Real-time sentiment

Blogs

Medium, Substack

Thought leadership

Forums

Reddit, HN

Community sentiment

3. Tool Recommendations

Tool

Type

Best For

Cost

Google Alerts

Basic monitoring

Simple tracking

Free

Feedly

RSS aggregation

News aggregation

Freemium

Mention

Social + web

Brand monitoring

Paid

Meltwater

Enterprise

Comprehensive

Enterprise

Brandwatch

Social listening

Social analysis

Enterprise

NewsAPI

API access

Custom builds

Freemium

Flipboard

Curation

Personal digest

Free

News Digest Template

# [Company/Topic] News Digest

**Period**: [Date range]

**Prepared by**: [Name/Team]

**Distribution**: [Internal/External]

---

## Headlines Summary

### Top Stories This Period

1. **[Headline 1]** - [Source], [Date]

   - Key point: [Summary]

   - Impact: [High/Medium/Low]

2. **[Headline 2]** - [Source], [Date]

   - Key point: [Summary]

   - Impact: [High/Medium/Low]

3. **[Headline 3]** - [Source], [Date]

   - Key point: [Summary]

   - Impact: [High/Medium/Low]

---

## Coverage by Category

### Company News

| Date | Headline | Source | Sentiment |

|------|----------|--------|-----------|

| | | | Positive/Neutral/Negative |

### Industry News

| Date | Headline | Source | Relevance |

|------|----------|--------|-----------|

| | | | High/Medium/Low |

### Competitor News

| Date | Headline | Source | Competitor |

|------|----------|--------|------------|

| | | | |

---

## Sentiment Analysis

| Category | Positive | Neutral | Negative | Total |

|----------|----------|---------|----------|-------|

| Company | | | | |

| Products | | | | |

| Executives | | | | |

**Overall Sentiment Trend**: [Improving/Stable/Declining]

---

## Key Themes

### Theme 1: [Name]

[Description and relevant articles]

### Theme 2: [Name]

[Description and relevant articles]

---

## Action Items

1. [ ] [Action based on coverage]

2. [ ] [Action based on coverage]

3. [ ] [Action based on coverage]

---

## Upcoming Events to Watch

| Date | Event | Potential Impact |

|------|-------|-----------------|

| | | |

---

## Sources Monitored

- [List of sources]

---

*Next digest: [Date]*

Media Analysis Framework

Coverage Metrics

Metric

Description

Calculation

Volume

Number of mentions

Count of articles

Reach

Potential audience

Sum of publication reach

Share of Voice

Your mentions vs competitors

Your mentions / Total market mentions

Sentiment

Tone of coverage

Positive:Neutral:Negative ratio

Message Pull-Through

Key message presence

% of articles with key messages

Sentiment Classification

Sentiment

Indicators

Positive

Praise, success, growth, innovation

Neutral

Factual reporting, announcements

Negative

Criticism, problems, failures, concerns

Source Authority Tiers

Tier

Examples

Weight

Tier 1

WSJ, NYT, Reuters, FT

10x

Tier 2

Industry leaders, major outlets

5x

Tier 3

Regional, specialized

2x

Tier 4

Blogs, small outlets

1x

Alert Configuration Guide

Google Alerts Setup

1. Go to google.com/alerts

2. Enter search query:

   "Your Company" OR "Your Product"

3. Show options:

   - How often: As-it-happens / Daily / Weekly

   - Sources: Automatic / News / Blogs / Web

   - Language: [Select]

   - Region: [Select]

   - How many: All results / Best results

4. Create alert

Recommended Alert Categories

Category

Query Example

Frequency

Brand mentions

"Company Name"

As-it-happens

Product mentions

"Product Name"

Daily

Executive mentions

"CEO Name"

Weekly

Competitor news

"Competitor" AND launch

Daily

Industry trends

[industry] AND "trends 2025"

Weekly

Negative monitoring

"Company Name" AND (problem OR issue OR complaint)

As-it-happens

Output Format: Monitoring Strategy

# News Monitoring Strategy: [Topic/Brand]

**Prepared**: [Date]

**Review Cycle**: [Quarterly]

---

## Monitoring Objectives

1. [Objective 1]

2. [Objective 2]

3. [Objective 3]

---

## Keyword Strategy

### Primary Keywords

[keyword 1]

[keyword 2]

"[exact phrase]"

### Boolean Queries

**Brand Monitoring**:

"Company Name" OR "Product Name" OR @handle

**Competitor Tracking**:

("Competitor A" OR "Competitor B") AND (funding OR launch OR partnership)

**Industry News**:

[industry] AND (trends OR innovation OR market)

### Exclusion Terms

NOT (jobs OR careers OR hiring)

---

## Source Matrix

| Category | Sources | Priority |

|----------|---------|----------|

| Tier 1 News | [List] | High |

| Industry | [List] | High |

| Tech | [List] | Medium |

| Social | [List] | Medium |

| Blogs | [List] | Low |

---

## Tool Configuration

### Primary Tool: [Tool Name]

- Setup instructions

- Query configuration

- Alert settings

### Secondary Tools

- [Tool 2]: [Purpose]

- [Tool 3]: [Purpose]

---

## Workflow

### Daily

1. Review real-time alerts

2. Triage by priority

3. Flag for action

### Weekly

1. Compile digest

2. Analyze trends

3. Share with stakeholders

### Monthly

1. Full analysis report

2. Strategy review

3. Keyword refinement

---

## Distribution

| Stakeholder | Content | Frequency |

|-------------|---------|-----------|

| Executives | Summary | Weekly |

| PR Team | Full digest | Daily |

| Marketing | Competitor intel | Weekly |

| Sales | Battle card updates | As needed |

---

## Success Metrics

1. Coverage volume vs baseline

2. Share of voice vs competitors

3. Sentiment ratio improvement

4. Response time to mentions

Tips for Better Results

• Be specific about what you want to monitor

• Prioritize sources based on relevance

• Use Boolean operators to reduce noise

• Set appropriate frequency - not everything needs real-time

• Review and refine keywords regularly

• Establish escalation criteria for urgent mentions

Limitations

• Cannot execute actual monitoring

• Cannot access real-time news

• Cannot access paywalled sources

• Cannot provide breaking news

• Strategy needs manual implementation

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