Strategy

What Is HARO (Help a Reporter Out)?

HARO (Help a Reporter Out) was a free service that emailed journalist queries to a list of sources, who replied hoping to be quoted and cited. The original service was discontinued in 2024, and the same query-and-source model now runs on other platforms.

Why it matters

Answering reporter queries is one of the few ways to earn editorial links from publications that never sell placements, and the tactic is still alive even though the original brand is not. Knowing the service ended also saves you from buying courses and tools still built around it.

Example

A veterinarian answers a query about pet insurance costs with two specific figures and a short quote, and is cited by name in the published article. Today that query would arrive through a successor platform such as Qwoted, Featured, SourceBottle or a journalist request posted on social media.

Common misconception

That HARO is still running under its old name. Cision rebranded it in 2024 and the rebranded service closed the same year, so anyone selling "HARO links" today is working from one of the newer query platforms, from direct pitching, or from nothing at all.

Related terms

Digital PR Earning coverage and links from publications through PR work. Outreach Contacting site owners to ask for a placement or link. Editorial Link A link a publisher chose to give, on merit, inside their content. Brand Mention Your brand named on another site, with or without a link. Link Building The practice of getting other sites to link to yours.

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