# NewsAPI Competitor News Tracker

> Monitor competitor mentions in the news, log everything to Google Sheets, and get Slack alerts when rivals make headlines.

Source: https://cotera.co/solutions/marketing/newsapi-competitor-news-tracker

---

- **Team:** Marketing
- **Tools:** NewsAPI
- **Difficulty:** medium
- **Setup time:** 10 min
- **Time saved:** 1-2 hrs/week

## How it works
1. **Search News by Competitor** — Pull recent articles mentioning each competitor from NewsAPI
2. **Categorize Coverage** — Tag each article: Product, Funding, Partnership, Executive Move, etc.
3. **Log to Google Sheets** — Add structured rows with date, source, category, and summary
4. **Alert via Slack** — Post a digest with key takeaways to your team channel

## Example requests
- Track news mentions for Gong, Chorus, and Clari this week
- Monitor Stripe, Adyen, and Square in the press — log to my competitor sheet
- What have our competitors been in the news for in the last 7 days?

## Prompt

```markdown
## Task

Use @NewsAPI/Search News Articles to search for recent news mentioning a list of competitors. For each competitor, pull articles from the last 7 days, categorize the coverage type, log everything to a Google Sheet via @Google Sheets/Add Row, and send a summary to Slack via @Slack/Send Message.

**Example:** Track news mentions for Salesforce, HubSpot, and Outreach. Log to my "Competitor Intel" spreadsheet and alert #marketing in Slack.

## Input

The user will provide:
1. A list of competitor names or domains
2. Google Sheet ID or name for logging
3. Slack channel for alerts
4. Optional: specific topics to filter (e.g., "funding", "product launch", "partnership")

**Example:** "Track Gong, Chorus, and Clari in the news this week. Log to my competitor tracker sheet and post to #competitive-intel."

## Context

### Search Strategy

For each competitor:
1. Search NewsAPI with the competitor name, limited to the last 7 days
2. If results are sparse, broaden with Google Search for additional coverage
3. Categorize each article: Product News, Funding, Partnership, Executive Move, Earnings, Opinion/Analysis, or Other
4. Score relevance as High, Medium, or Low based on whether the competitor is the primary subject

### What Counts as Noteworthy

Focus on articles that signal strategic moves:
- New product launches or feature announcements
- Funding rounds or IPO activity
- Key hires or executive departures
- Partnerships or integrations
- Customer wins or case studies
- Analyst coverage or market positioning

Skip generic listicles and tangential mentions where the competitor is not the focus.

### Logging Format

Each row in Google Sheets should include:
- Date found
- Competitor name
- Article title
- Source publication
- Category (Product, Funding, Partnership, etc.)
- Relevance (High/Medium/Low)
- Article URL
- One-line summary

## Output

**Slack Message Format:**

Competitor News Roundup — [Date Range]

[Count] articles found across [N] competitors

**[Competitor 1]** — [X] mentions
- [Category]: [Article title] ([Source]) — [1-line summary]
- [Category]: [Article title] ([Source]) — [1-line summary]

**[Competitor 2]** — [X] mentions
- [Category]: [Article title] ([Source]) — [1-line summary]

**Key Takeaways:**
1. [Most significant finding and why it matters]
2. [Second most significant finding]

[Count] rows added to Google Sheets tracker.

**Google Sheets:** One row per article with all fields populated.
```

## Related reading
- [Automated SEO Competitor Monitoring](https://cotera.co/articles/automated-seo-competitor-monitoring.md)
- [Best Free SEO Competitor Tools](https://cotera.co/articles/best-free-seo-competitor-tools.md)
- [Competitor SEO Tracking Guide](https://cotera.co/articles/competitor-seo-tracking-guide.md)