Remember these emails from HARO. After many months (or a year or so) of anxiety, we saw that Cision – the company that owns HARO – sent its last email. This was the last HARO email I received on April 2nd, 2024.
Example HARO Email
We loved these email feeds. We loved HARO exactly as it was. We relied on it for our own app as did many others, as well as our amazing userbase.
Where are the HARO journalist requests?
So where exactly do HARO’s stream of journalist requests reside now?
Unfortunately, this is the new reality of HARO / Connectively nowadays…
- opportunities are gated inside Connectively – a new web app by Cision with a strikingly similar approach to PitchResponse 👀
- require a new login to Connectively (old login to HARO will not work)
- And you’re limited on the number of pitches based on subscription plan.
Here is a view showing HARO queries inside of Connectively:
What are the differences between PitchResponse and Connectively?
At PitchResponse, our goal is to provide as many link opportunities as possible. To date, we offered opportunities from these sources:
HARO queries(not available as of April 2024)- Twitter – while we have not announced this new feature, it’s been in beta for a few months. We’ll make a formal announcement about it in a week or two.
- PitchResponse Exclusive Opportunities – we ocassionally have publishers who submit their opportunity directly on our platform.
Within our app, we provide so much more than Connectively. Here are some of the unique differences:
- PitchResponse was designed for both solo brands as well as SEO and PR agencies. Connectively’s largest plan limits you to just 10 profiles making it unusable for agencies with clients. For reference, our app’s higher plan allows 30 projects with 3 profiles/emails connected in each project (90 total).
- PitchResponse is the first platform to integrate domain rating and traffic data for publications to further support expert contributions. Connectively does not provide such info.
- PitchResponse aggregates link opportunities from multiple sources.
- PitchResponse has more robust keyword alerts with notifications both via email and Slack integration.
- PitchResponse is the first app to also offer a Pitch Analyzer to help increase the likelihood of getting your pitch seen and approved.
- PitchResponse lets you mark a pitch as placed (won) for better tracking.
- PitchResponse has the ability to add team members for better collaboration.
- PitchResponse offers ability to see all your pitches including bookmarked, drafts, pitched, and placed.
- PitchResponse will never call you 10 times a day and ask you to buy other services. In fact, we have zero salespersons 😛
And wait until you see what else we’ve got in store for 2024.
What is the market sentiment regarding the HARO changes?
There’s a recurring theme we’ve noticed about how journalists, SEOs, and PR pros feel about Connectively and Cision. In short, it’s not favorable.
Why? Because they tend to destroy loved products and/or restrict access to the general public via price increases. They cater to larger industry players and that’s understandable. After all, they’ve gotta make money as do we. So it’s not something we can knock them for nor should dwell on it any further.
Having spoken to several link-building agencies and journalists, we’ve also noticed a dramatic decrease in the number of opportunities Connectively is reflecting daily. Here’s a direct quote from one of the leading agencies in the space:
Connectively has been eerily quiet over the last few days… very few opportunities being posted, maybe 25% of what I’ve seen before (and that might be generous).
Link-Building Agency Owner
Seeing industry experts who work on HARO opportunities tell us they’ve seen 75% LESS queries is alarming. However, the bright side of that means journalists will be seeking other platforms to submit their queries. Naturally, we’re building a journalist-focused side of the app to satisfy their needs.
If you’re a journalist, it’s free to submit queries on PitchResponse! Register here as a publisher.
Regardless of the fact that the HARO email feed is dead or the possibility that Connectively will soon become a ghost town, our users can rest assured we’re actively working on new and extremely valuable features for them. More to come on that front.
For now, let’s all say our last words for the beloved HARO query emails. RIP!
