David Meerman Scott coined the term newsjacking. He wrote the book that became the basis for a Hollywood film. He's watched marketing get rewritten more than once. When he says the rules have changed again, it's worth paying attention.
But his most urgent message isn't about prompts or models. It's simpler and harder: stay real.
AI vs. the Content Revolution
Paxton asked Scott where AI ranks in the history of marketing disruption. His answer was honest.
"I haven't decided if it's number one or number two yet," Scott said.
Before the internet, B2B marketers had three options: pay for trade shows, pay for trade publications, or fund a team of people making cold calls. The shift to content creation changed all of that. Websites, blogs, social media, real-time content. Scott called it "absolutely freaking transformational."
AI may be just as big. Or bigger. He's still deciding. "At the moment, I'm going to call it a toss-up."
Change Takes Longer Than You Think
The content revolution didn't happen fast. Scott has been talking about building great websites and creating valuable content since the 1990s. "Not that many people are doing it," he said. "How long has that taken to play out? 30 years."
The resistance came from the top. Leaders who built their careers on cold calls and trade shows kept funding cold calls and trade shows, even when their teams knew better. That generation has mostly stepped aside. Scott sees the same pattern forming now around AI.
"That same sort of resistance is often showing up today around artificial intelligence implementation, at least for some of the smaller organizations that I see."
The Core Idea Still Holds
Despite everything AI has changed, Scott is clear on one thing: content still works.
"The basic idea is still totally valid. You create content, people find it somehow, and then that brands you as an organization worthy of attention."
What has changed is how people find it. Search engines gave way to Google. Now it's ChatGPT, Claude, and whatever comes next. "It still is the content that drives that."
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Three Ways to Get Found in an AI World
Scott offered three concrete approaches for getting content into large language models.
Proprietary data. Most B2B organizations are sitting on data they've never thought to surface. Scott pointed to Intralinks, a company that facilitated M&A deal flow. They couldn't share details about individual deals, but they could surface aggregate trends: how many deals this month, how that compared to last year. That became the Intralinks Deal Flow Calculator, a free tool that positioned them as the authority in their space.
Hagerty Insurance did the same thing. They insure over three million classic cars and had real market data on what those cars were worth. "They put that out for free. Anybody can tap that data and find out what their classic car is worth." People who had never heard of Hagerty started paying attention.
Real-time content. Scott invented the term newsjacking to describe what happens when you inject your ideas into a breaking story. "When something happens, you have an opportunity to put out content today, right now." If your company works in data security and a major breach just hit the news, that is your moment. "Not tomorrow, not two hours from now. Right now is the time to talk." That kind of content gets surfaced by AI engines precisely because it's timely and specific.
Grokopedia. Grok's AI-generated encyclopedia has a "Suggest an Article" button. Unlike Wikipedia, which relies on human editors and is notoriously difficult to get into, Grokopedia lets anyone with genuine expertise submit a topic, cite themselves as a source, and often get an article generated. Scott has done it for each of his books. "It's a backdoor," he said, and one most marketers haven't found yet.
The Middle Layer Is Going Away
Scott was direct about what AI means for marketing org structure. For decades, marketing departments had three tiers: strategists at the top, doers at the bottom, and a large middle layer whose job was to translate strategy into execution.
"That middle layer is going away."
AI handles the translation now. Reporting, analysis, routing strategy to execution, much of that can be technology-driven. "Either you're a strategy person or you're a doer person." The same applies at agencies. The people who sat between client and agency, managing reporting and communication, will shrink significantly. Some of those roles may disappear entirely.
"Think about how your marketing department can run using artificial intelligence to transform an organization. That strategy translates directly through technology to the people who need to execute."
Own Your Content Real Estate
Scott still publishes to his blog about once a week. He knows most engagement now happens on LinkedIn, where his newsletter regularly gets 20 or 30 comments while his blog might get one or two. He's made peace with that. But he hasn't walked away from his own site.
"Content you own, you own all that content. You don't own the stuff that you put out on YouTube or LinkedIn." Platforms control their algorithms and can surface or bury your work at will. Your own site stays yours.
The One Thing Most Marketers Get Wrong
Paxton asked Scott what people keep getting wrong. "Anything that outwardly feels fake," he said.
Stock photos top the list. "Don't use a stock photo to represent your clients. Don't use a stock photo to represent your employees." Right behind that: corporate jargon. The "flexible, scalable solution for improving business process using cutting-edge technology and mission-critical software." Scott calls it gobbledygook.
"You don't build fans by talking about your mission-critical, best-of-breed applications. You make fans by talking like a human being."
That's the through line in everything Scott has written, from The New Rules of Marketing and PR to his upcoming The Fandom Playbook. In a world where AI can generate an endless stream of polished, technically correct content, the marketers who win will be the ones who sound like actual people.
Resources:
Check out David’s work: https://www.davidmeermanscott.com
Connect with David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeermanscott
Connect with Paxton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paxtongray/
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About David Meerman Scott:
David Meerman Scott spotted the online marketing revolution in its infancy and wrote multiple books about it including “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”, with more than 500,000 copies sold in 29 languages from Albanian to Vietnamese.
Now David says the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of superficial online communications. He shows how organizations win by developing fans, the subject of his Wall Street Journal bestseller “Fanocracy” and his new book “The Fandom Playbook” which will be published in late 2026.
He is an advisor to emerging companies, serves on the HubSpot advisory board, and delivers keynotes and masterclasses around the world. He loves to surf, backpack, and dance the Lindy Hop.
