Cutline Speaks

A New Approach to Helping a Reporter Out

posted by The Cutline Team on August 21, 2008

I recently discovered "Help a Reporter Out" or HARO, which originally started as a Facebook group intended to help reporters connect with sources- mostly PR professionals. The group's creator, Peter Shankman, promised to keep the pitches on subject while connecting as many people as possible. The group quickly outgrew Facebook and moved to a website from which he sends out three emails a day full of media requests. Last I heard the list is approaching 20,000 members.

So far, I've found HARO to be a good service. I've personally followed up on a couple opportunities and the media seem to like it, as they continue to post more opportunities. But there's also Profnet, which has been around for a number of years and consequently is a lot larger and has more members. Maybe it is just a matter of time before HARO becomes as large and popular as Profnet, but for now, the good news is HARO is still free and you don't have to choose between the two services - you can connect with more people and cover more bases by using both.

Tags for this post: pr