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Help a Reporter Out (HARO), discontinued

Score5 out of 10

19 Reviews and Ratings

What is Help a Reporter Out (HARO), discontinued?

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) was a service owned by Cision (via the merger with Vocus) for reaching out to journalists. It is discontinued.

Categories & Use Cases

Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using Help a Reporter Out (HARO), discontinued.
Based on HG Insights installation data
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#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

49.3%

69 installations of 140

#2 most frequent

Information

17.1%

24 installations of 140

#3 most frequent

Manufacturing

6.4%

9 installations of 140

Help a Reporter Out (HARO), discontinued Reviews

What users are saying about Help a Reporter Out (HARO), discontinued.
View all Help a Reporter Out (HARO), discontinued reviews

Good, but not worth the monthly charge

Incentivized
Chandler ElmoreView profile
Community Development & Engagement Lead in Marketing at Blue Federal Credit Union (201-500 employees employees)

Pros

  • Offer insight into what reporters are wanting to talk about
  • See the process on story creation
  • Keep up with the industry conversation

Cons

  • It is owned by a media company
  • Once you sign up for it, Cision will bombard you trying to get you to upgrade

Most Important Features

  • Free publicity alerts
  • Can insert our expertise into existing conversation
  • Mostly done through email

Return on Investment

  • Can be expensive since it is monthly
  • The free version is positive ROI for my business

Other Software Used

Meltwater Social (formerly Sysomos), Leadpages, ClickFunnels

Quickest way to get press

Incentivized
Melanie DowneyView profile
Course Creator and Coach/Mentor, The Publicity Workshop in Marketing at Melanie Downey Brand PR (1-10 employees employees)

Pros

  • Pushes PR opportunities right to your desktop several times a day
  • Provides media opportunities for just about every industry and if you monitor it regularly, on just about every topic you can think of
  • Provides an easy way to contact reporters with relevant information
  • Media outlets are verified for you

Cons

  • It would be great if there was a way of knowing if a reporter had read your email, so the user would have immediate feedback on the types of pitches that are successful, or not.

Most Important Features

  • Provides a steady stream of media opportunities

Return on Investment

  • I average about an 80% success rate for my pitches via HARO. Time very well spent. And since there is no cost, excellent ROI.

Other Software Used

Constant Contact, MailerLite

Usability

HARO is an easy to use resource for both journalists and PR professionals

Incentivized
Dan LobringView profile
Vice President, Marketing Communications in Marketing at rEvolution (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • It's a great resource for journalist seeking sources
  • It's a great resource for sources seeking opportunities to comment on
  • It's a daily/digestible newsletter format (morning, afternoon, evening)

Cons

  • Better vetting of sources/journalists
  • Lack of feedback/responses from journalists
  • Ability for journalists/others to remain anonymous

Most Important Features

  • Newsletter format
  • Daily
  • Queries are divided into fields that make sense for us, i.e., sports, marketing, business, lifestyle

Return on Investment

  • Positive from an earned media perspective
  • Negative from taking the time to reply and not hearing back

Other Software Used

Cision Communications Cloud, Nuvi, Mailchimp

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) was great until it was acquired. Today, HERO is the real hero.

Incentivized
Verified User
Executive (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Connecting our clients and their stories to reporters seeking sources for stories they're actively developing is a critical process that leads to important results. We use Help a Reporter Out (HARO) (and similar tools) to learn about these opportunities. When we find a suitable match between a reporter and the experts we have to offer, we make the pitch and hopefully turn it into coverage.

Pros

  • Identify active opportunities for coverage with reporters that need qualified sources
  • Create more opportunities for clients to earn coverage in a wide range of media outlets
  • Provide an ongoing source for leads that can help us meet our goals.

Cons

  • Help a Reporter Out (HARO) was recently acquired by Cision, which drove it straight into the ground.
  • Cision's idea to turn Help a Reporter Out (HARO) into a subscription service was a death knell. Making these opportunities available as a resource for journalists and PR practitioners alike, without having to pay for it, was what made it so great.
  • Help a Reporter Out (HARO) founder Peter Shankman revived the idea and launched HERO, which essentially captures everything that was great about HARO.

Return on Investment

  • As a free resource, the ROI was off the charts. As a subscription service, not so much.
  • When we can bring clients wins, regardless of how they were sourced, that keeps them happy and helps us maintain strong long-term agency/client relationships. In that regard, subscribing to a free resource like HARO (or now HERO) is a no-brainer.
  • It's unlikely that we'll subscribe to a service that doesn't do as good a job as it used to, especially when we pay so much for other services that are required to do business effectively.

Excellent resource to connect experts to reporters

Incentivized
Jessica HerreraView profile
Media Specialist in Marketing at Center for Biological Diversity (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • Connects reporters to experts
  • Allows organization to gain media exposure by helping reporters with specific requests and questions
  • Updates regularly, with three daily emails
  • Establishes relationships between members of your organization and reporters

Cons

  • Make the emails easier to navigate and more friendly to different email servers
  • Allow for forwarding and direct emails, even when someone hasn't signed up for the service

Return on Investment

  • Excellent media coverage
  • Connections and relationships with new reporters and outlets
  • Excellent way to stay ahead of the news cycle and be the first to comment

Other Software Used

Cision PR Software, MyMediaInfo, BurrellesLuce Workflow