Daily competitor news briefing for Slack and Google Docs

Build me an agent workflow that runs every weekday at 8am Eastern and produces a competitive intelligence briefing for my team.

Trigger: cron, weekdays at 8am ET.

Inputs the agent should accept as configurable variables: a watchlist of competitor names (with optional aliases and parent brands), the destination Slack channel, and the target Google Drive folder for the doc archive.

Step 1. For each competitor on the watchlist, use NewsWhip's Search Articles (Historical) operation to pull the previous 24 hours of articles mentioning that competitor. Sort results by fb_total_interactions and nw_score so the highest-engagement stories surface first. Also pull the equivalent window from 7 days ago for the same competitors so the agent can compute share-of-voice shifts versus the prior week.

Step 2. Have the agent read the article set and identify narrative arcs per competitor: product launches, leadership changes, funding or M&A, partnerships, controversies or PR risk, and any other recurring theme. Surface notable publishers and authors driving the coverage.

Step 3. Create a new Google Doc using Google Docs' Create Document operation. Title it something like "Competitive Briefing — YYYY-MM-DD". Then use Batch Update Document to populate it with a structured briefing: an executive summary at the top, a per-competitor section with top stories and the narrative arcs, a share-of-voice section comparing this week to last week, and a publishers/authors section calling out who is shaping the narrative. Use headings, bullets, and links to the source articles so the doc is genuinely readable.

Step 4. Post a short summary to the configured Slack channel using Slack's Send a Message operation. Keep the Slack post skim-friendly: top three takeaways, three to five headlines with publisher names, and a prominent link to the Google Doc for the deeper read. Do not dump the full briefing into Slack.

Edge cases. If a competitor has no coverage in the last 24 hours, list them under a "quiet today" line so the team knows they were checked. If NewsWhip returns nothing for every competitor, still create the doc and post a brief Slack note saying the watchlist was quiet rather than skipping the run.

Tone. Analyst-style, neutral, specific. Prefer concrete details ("Acme raised a $40M Series B led by X") over vague summaries ("Acme had funding news").

Additional information

What does this prompt do?

Pulls the last 24 hours of news coverage for each competitor on your watchlist and ranks the stories by how much they were shared and engaged with.
Identifies the narrative arcs that matter, like product launches, leadership changes, funding news, and controversies, plus shifts in share of voice versus the prior week.
Writes a structured briefing into a new, dated Google Doc so your team has a permanent archive to scroll back through.
Posts a short Slack summary with the top three takeaways, three to five headlines, and a link to the full doc.

What do I need to use this?

A NewsWhip account with API access.
A Google account that can create new Google Docs in the destination drive.
A Slack workspace and the channel you want the morning briefing to land in.
A list of competitors you want to track. You can adjust this anytime.

How can I customize it?

Change the schedule. Run it earlier, later, or only on certain days.
Edit the watchlist. Add or remove competitors, or group brands together when companies share a parent.
Pick a different Slack channel, swap in a private channel for executives, or send to multiple channels.
Adjust the briefing format. Change the number of headlines, add a section for industry analysts, or call out specific publishers you care about.

Frequently asked questions

How far back does each briefing look?

By default, the agent pulls the previous 24 hours of coverage so you start each day with what is genuinely new. You can widen the window if you only run the briefing a few times a week.

Do I need a paid NewsWhip plan?

Yes. The briefing relies on NewsWhip's historical article search, which requires an account with API access. Your NewsWhip rep can confirm whether your plan covers it.

Can the Slack post go to more than one channel?

Yes. You can fan the same summary out to a leadership channel, a marketing channel, and a competitive intel channel, or keep it scoped to one place.

Where does the deeper analysis live?

Each run creates a new Google Doc named with that day's date so you build a searchable archive over time. The Slack post links straight to it for anyone who wants the full read.

What if a competitor has no news that day?

The agent notes which competitors were quiet so you still know the watchlist was checked, and it focuses the takeaways on the brands that actually moved.