EMERGENCY MEDIA UPDATE: HARO IS BACK!

Nobody wants this! Okay, maybe a few people...

I had an entirely different post planned for today, but breaking news waits for no one!
It was announced yesterday that HARO is back!

And listen—I hate to be that person, but... nobody wants this.

Here’s the thing about HARO. It was like a great boyfriend in the beginning. Attentive, helpful, always there when you needed something. Then it got a little controlling. Then, it was downright abusive. Suddenly, it was blowing up your inbox with garbage leads that had zero relevance, and way too much AI. We broke up. You went away…

And now? It’s texting us at 2 a.m., “You up?”

HARO 3.0, in the words of Taylor Swift: We are never ever ever getting back together!

Hello Substack

About a month ago, I wrote an entire post about why Substack is a better sourcing option than HARO. If you don’t want to read the whole thing (I mean, you should, but we are all busy)—here is a snippet.

At one point, HARO was the go-to resource, but it ultimately became unsustainable due to a flood of unqualified pitches. I shouldn’t shit on Cision, but they mismanaged the whole thing. Instead of ending it, they should have just implemented actual rules. The lack of control over submissions made it a frustrating experience for journalists. Do I sound bitter? Perhaps. Am I over it? Yes. Is this also a good reason to rant? Of course, it is!

I said what I said. I stand by this even more now. HARO 3.0, please lose my number.

Details of HARO’s Acquisition by Featured

On April 15th, Featured announced they acquired HARO in a blog post. They also sent out an email blast.

Have you ever heard of Featured? Me neither. And I write for several top-tier publications. That’s not a great sign. I quickly took a peek at this platform, and it looks like Qwoted, but with a better color scheme. Now, when the Featured people read this—as they inevitably will—they can’t say everything I wrote in this post is mean and discouraging.

Let’s break down the announcement:

AI is flooding the internet with generic content, and journalists need credible, human sources more than ever.

Okay, all of this is true! I will give them that.

Our goal is to preserve what made HARO great, while modernizing it for today’s media landscape.

And this is where you lost me. Sorry, you can’t. I don’t think you can preserve what made HARO great. Unless you have someone personally vetting every single source to check they are actually qualified…

And you won’t do this because the goal of the acquisition is to get more subscribers for your paid Featured service. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this out.

Everyone’s an expert at something.

NO! TOO MANY PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE EXPERTS! If you are a car mechanic, you aren’t an interior design expert. If you can organize your pantry, but working in shipping logistics is how you pay your bills, you aren’t a pro organizer. It’s all a big scheme for backlinks. Journalists are not stupid!

Just because you can revive something doesn’t mean you should. Also…

We Already Moved On

Like that boyfriend who could change a flat tire—we eventually figured out we could call AAA, and we never needed you in the first place.

Sorry, you’ve been replaced by the following platforms:

• Substack (obviously)

• Qwoted (Perfect for finding niche experts like aerospace engineers, and by that I don’t mean Katy Perry)

• Facebook groups

• Twitter (#journorequest, #journorequests)

• Threads

• Instagram stories (for last-minute sourcing)

I’ve personally found great experts through all these. HARO? Not in years.

SOS

It’s worth noting that Peter Shankman, who founded HARO and later sold it to Cision, launched a new version called SOS last year. I subscribe. There aren’t tons of opps for publicists there, but I can’t predict the future. I like that it’s small and niche. Will it eventually become the chaotic shitshow that was the demise of HARO? I hope not.

Shankman doesn’t appear to be overly enthused about HARO 3.0 either, stating on Threads: “They're gonna have a ridiculously hard time gaining reporters’ trust back after the debacle that HARO wound up becoming a decade after I sold it.”

I couldn’t agree more, Peter.

If Gossip Girl or Cruel Intentions taught us anything, it’s that not everything needs a comeback. HARO 3.0? Nah, I’m good.