For years, HARO (Help a Reporter Out) was the go-to resource for public relations professionals seeking to connect their clients with journalists working on upcoming stories. With its three daily email blasts packed with queries from reporters across the country, HARO made it easy to scan through and quickly pitch relevant experts and sources. Its straightforward system was a staple for PR firms and solo practitioners alike.
However, in late 2022, HARO’s parent company Cision made the baffling decision to shutter the beloved platform and migrate users to their new offering called Connectively. This move was met with widespread outcry and frustration from the PR community who had come to rely on HARO’s simple, effective model.
“Connectively is awful. Everything Cision touches turns to shit,” laments one PR veteran. “I miss HARO. Qwoted is the only semi-decent thing out there that I’ve found.”
The Downfall of a Pioneering Platform
HARO was founded in 2008 by Peter Shankman as a Facebook group where he would share reporter queries from his inbox to help connect them with quality sources. It quickly grew into an indispensable tool with thousands of journalists and millions of sources leveraging the platform.
In 2010, Shankman sold HARO to media monitoring and software company Vocus. Vocus was later acquired by Cision in 2014. Under Cision’s ownership, HARO continued operating successfully for several more years before the company decided to pull the plug in favor of Connectively in late 2022.
“I take back all the times I complained about HARO,” one longtime user laments about the platform’s demise. “Connectively is so cumbersome! I didn’t realize how easy it was receiving those emails in my inbox three times a day.”
The widespread disdain for Connectively stems from its clunky user interface that makes it difficult to quickly scan and identify relevant source requests. Instead of simple email blasts, users have to log into the platform and sift through queries organized by broad topic categories.
“It’s like Cision realized that HARO was 20 years out of date so they made a platform that’s 10 years out of date,” quips one PR pro.
The Struggle to Find Alternatives
In the aftermath of HARO’s shutdown, PR professionals have been scrambling to find suitable alternatives to aid in their media relations efforts. While a handful of options have emerged, none have quite managed to replicate HARO’s elegant simplicity and effectiveness.
Qwoted has emerged as one of the leading contenders aiming to fill the void. The platform aggregates queries from journalists, bloggers, and influencers into a streamlined email newsletter. Its user-friendly interface and effective filters have earned praise, though some bemoan the lack of opportunities compared to HARO’s heyday.
“I’m leaning in on Qwoted too, but not too aware of anything new on the market to fill that gap yet,” admits one PR agency leader.
Other alternatives that have garnered some traction include ProfNet, Featured.com, Postbee, and SourceBottle. However, each has its own limitations in terms of opportunity volume, revenue model, or overall user experience.
The Rise of Social Media and Community Groups
In the absence of a true HARO successor, many PR pros have turned to other channels like social media and online community groups to uncover source requests and make connections with journalists.
Twitter has long been a hub for this type of activity, with reporters frequently using hashtags like #journorequest and #prrequest to broadcast their queries to the masses. However, Twitter’s recent upheaval and uncertainty under Elon Musk’s leadership has caused many journalists to flee the platform, making it a less reliable resource.
“Since Elon has taken over Twitter, a lot of journalists have jumped ship,” one source notes. “Threads I find isn’t as easily searchable as Twitter is/was.”
To fill the void, an array of public and private Facebook groups have emerged as popular gathering spots for PR professionals and journalists to share opportunities and connect. Some top groups include Czars, Sharing OPPs, PR Media and Marketing, Respect the Publicist, and Wellness Writers, Editors and Experts.
“I’ve also had some luck with local/national-based Facebook groups for media and PR people,” shares one publicist who misses HARO’s glory days.
The groups offer a way for PR pros to tap into niche topics and communities. However, they lack the streamlined format of a dedicated platform and require more manual effort to sift through posts.
Some have looked to other social networks like LinkedIn and Substack to forge connections and identify opportunities. But these scattershot approaches lack the concentrated effectiveness of HARO’s model.
The Importance of Networking and Relationships
As PR professionals continue adapting to the post-HARO landscape, many are renewing their focus on good old-fashioned networking and human relationships. Without a dominant platform to depend on, making direct connections with journalists has become even more crucial.
“Old school networking with writers is still there,” notes one PR vet, emphasizing the lasting value of human relationships in the field.
Whether through social media outreach, industry events, or even hosting one’s own networking gatherings, investing time into building rapport and trust with journalists can pay major dividends. A warm relationship and customized, well-researched pitch will always carry more weight than a blind source offering through an online platform.
Some forward-thinking PR professionals have started hosting their own podcasts and online events specifically intended to connect with journalists and influencers in their sector. This allows them to have candid conversations, learn about their interests and needs, and position themselves as a go-to resource down the line.
The Lingering Void and Desire for a New Solution
While the PR community has managed to adapt and cobble together a mix of tools and tactics to aid in media relations, there’s no denying the lingering void left in HARO’s wake. The platform’s unparalleled reach, simplicity, and efficiency remain sorely missed by those who came to depend on it.
“I so far haaaate Connectively,” shares one jaded PR pro. “I used to find so many opps and now I feel blind.”
As PR professionals continue to lament the loss of their beloved resource, many hold out hope that a new platform will eventually emerge to become the industry’s centralized solution for quickly identifying source requests and connecting with journalists.
“There is a lot of money on the table for someone who cracks this,” suspects one PR agency leader. “Difficult to simultaneously attract both journalists and organizations I suppose.”
The first company to develop an intuitive, streamlined platform that seamlessly aggregates queries from journalists across all verticals and swiftly disseminates them to an engaged audience of PR pros and sources could very likely strike gold. Replicating HARO’s successful model, while modernizing the technology and user experience, presents a clear opportunity waiting to be seized.
For now, the PR world continues to make do with an admittedly disjointed mix of social media, online groups, paid platforms, and old-fashioned human networking. But the desire for a new comprehensive solution to efficiently connect sources and journalists burns bright.
“I’m so frustrated because I used to find so many opps and now I feel blind,” laments one PR pro. Until the void is filled, that frustration is likely to persist throughout the industry.
