HARO is gone. Not deprioritised, not rebranded again — permanently discontinued on 9 December 2024, when Cision confirmed that "the Connectively (HARO) platform has been permanently discontinued."
It was announced on 11 November 2024 and closed four weeks later, with Cision saying it had decided "to focus our attention on core offerings where we see significant opportunities to deliver even more value to our PR & Comms professionals."
That matters because HARO was the entire digital PR strategy for a very large number of small businesses, and because a great deal of published advice still recommends it. If a guide tells you to sign up for HARO, it was written before December 2024 and you should assume the rest of it is equally current.
What follows is the version that does not depend on one platform, which is the lesson the shutdown actually taught.
What digital PR is, and is not
It is getting mentioned and cited in publications your customers read, by being useful to the people who write them.
It is not: press releases distributed to wire services, "guaranteed placements", or paid articles. The last one is worth being precise about — Google's spam policy names "advertorials or native advertising where payment is received for articles that include links that pass ranking credit" as link spam. A paid placement is only compliant if the link is qualified, and a qualified link passes no ranking credit.
So the value has to come from somewhere other than the link. Which, for a small business, it does: a mention in a publication your customers read produces trust, referral traffic and the kind of citation that builds an entity. The link is a bonus, and increasingly a nofollowed one.
This reframing is not a consolation prize. It is the accurate description of what digital PR now buys, and planning around it produces better decisions than pretending otherwise.
The four routes, without an agency
Route 1 — Journalist source platforms
Several services connect reporters with sources, and after the HARO closure the category rearranged itself. Some are free to sources, some charge, and some are regional.
Rather than naming platforms that may close or change terms — which is precisely how the HARO advice went stale — here is how to evaluate one:
- Is it free for sources, or paid? If paid, what is the actual query volume in your subject area?
- Do queries in your field appear regularly? Watch for two weeks before paying anything
- How are queries delivered? Immediate matters — journalists work to deadlines and a digest that arrives the next morning is useless
- Is there any filtering, or do you receive everything?
- Who owns it, and how long has it existed? The HARO closure was an ownership decision, and consolidation in this category is constant
Do not build a strategy on one platform. That is the whole lesson.
Route 2 — Direct relationships with people who cover your subject
Slower, better, and the only route nobody can shut down.
Find the ten to twenty journalists, newsletter writers and podcasters who cover your subject specifically. Read them for a month before contacting anyone.
Then be useful before you need something. Correct an error politely and privately. Send a relevant data point with no ask attached. Answer a question they posted publicly.
The relationship is the asset. A journalist who knows you answer quickly and accurately will come to you, which inverts the entire dynamic.
Route 3 — Publish something that gets picked up
Original data is the most reliable route into coverage, because a journalist needs a number and you have one nobody else has.
The requirements are stricter than for a linkable asset. A journalist needs a clear finding, a stated method, a named source willing to be quoted, and it must be genuinely new. The build side of this is in linkable assets: what actually earns links.
Local and trade press are far more reachable than national, and for most small businesses more valuable. A trade publication your customers actually read beats a national mention nobody in your market sees.
Route 4 — Commentary with a real position
Reporters need someone to say something specific about a development.
The requirement is having a position, not a comment. "This is an interesting development that raises important questions" is not usable and never gets quoted. A specific claim, stated plainly, with a reason, does.
This is where practitioners beat agencies, because you know something about your field that a PR professional does not, and reporters can tell within one sentence which one they are talking to.
The method
Seven steps.
Step 1 — Define what you are actually a source on
Narrow beats broad, decisively.
"Small business marketing" is not a subject anyone calls a source about. "Email deliverability for small e-commerce businesses" is. The narrower the definition, the more likely you are the obvious person to ask.
Write it in one sentence. If you cannot, no journalist can either.
Step 2 — Make yourself verifiable
A journalist will check you before quoting you, in about ninety seconds.
- An about page with a real name, real photograph and a checkable background
- A body of published work in the subject you claim
- Consistent details across your site, your profiles and anywhere else you appear
- Contact details a stranger can find without filling in a form
The site's own entity signals matter here too, and they are the same signals that help search engines resolve who you are — see entity SEO.
Step 3 — Watch before you pitch
Two weeks minimum. What do these publications actually run? Which writers cover your corner? What have they covered recently enough that they will not want it again?
Most rejected pitches are rejected for fit, not quality.
Step 4 — Respond fast, and only when you fit
Speed is the whole advantage a small business has. Journalists work to deadlines and frequently take the first usable answer.
And answer only queries you genuinely fit. A pattern of marginal responses gets you filtered — and on platforms with any reputation mechanism, it gets you filtered permanently.
Step 5 — Write the response so it can be pasted in
This is the practical skill, and it is not writing a pitch. It is writing a quote.
- Answer the exact question, in the first sentence
- Two or three sentences, quotable as they stand
- A specific claim, not a general observation
- Your name, title and site at the end, formatted the way they will print it
- Nothing else. No pitch, no company boilerplate, no attachments
A response that needs editing is a response that gets skipped when four others do not.
Step 6 — Make sure the email actually arrives
The step nobody includes, and the one that silently kills a whole campaign.
Pitch emails are cold email, sent to people who have never corresponded with you, often in bursts, frequently from a domain with no sending history. That is exactly the profile that gets filtered. A journalist who never sees your response is indistinguishable from one who ignored it — and you learn nothing either way.
Before any outreach:
- Authenticate the sending domain properly — email authentication
- Check you are not on a blocklist before starting, not after
- Send from a real personal address, not a no-reply or a marketing platform
- Send individually, not in a batch — the batch is both a deliverability signal and a quality signal
The full picture is in link outreach emails that get replies.
Step 7 — Track what you get, and use it
Log every mention: publication, writer, date, whether it linked, and what prompted it.
Two uses. It shows which subjects actually get picked up, so you can do more of that. And it is the credibility evidence for the next pitch — "I have written about this for X and Y" is the sentence that opens doors.
What to expect
Honest numbers, from experience rather than a study.
- Most responses are not used. A response rate in the low tens of percent is a good result on source platforms, and lower is normal at the start
- Many mentions carry no link, or a nofollowed one. Google's guidance is that a nofollow attribute signals the link should not pass ranking credit — which does not stop the mention being valuable
- The first three months produce little. Direct relationships compound and platform responses improve as you learn what gets used
- One good mention often produces several, because journalists read each other and sources get reused
The realistic goal for a small business is a handful of quality mentions a year in publications your customers read — not a coverage graph.
The failure modes
Pitching everything. It gets you filtered and wastes the time that direct relationships need.
Sending a press release. For most small business news, nobody wants one. A short, specific email to one relevant writer works better.
Paying for guaranteed placement. Named in Google's spam policy as advertorial link spam, and the qualified version passes no ranking credit anyway.
Building on one platform. December 2024 settled this argument.
Treating a nofollowed mention as worthless. It is a citation your customers may read, and increasingly it is evidence that feeds how AI systems understand who you are — see AI search optimisation.
Giving up at eight weeks. This is the most common one, and it is the reason the compounding never starts.
Frequently asked questions
Is HARO still available?
No. HARO, renamed Connectively, was permanently discontinued by Cision on 9 December 2024, four weeks after being announced on 11 November. Any guide recommending it predates that shutdown.
What replaced HARO for getting press mentions?
Several journalist-source platforms operate in the category, and it consolidates regularly — which is why the durable answer is to evaluate on query volume in your subject, delivery speed and ownership, and never to depend on a single platform.
Do I need a PR agency for digital PR?
No, and for commentary a practitioner often does better. Reporters can tell within a sentence whether they are talking to someone who works in the field or someone representing them. An agency buys reach and speed, not credibility.
Do digital PR mentions have to include a link to be worth it?
No. Many mentions carry no link or a nofollowed one, which passes no ranking credit by design. The mention still produces trust, referral traffic and citation evidence in publications your customers read.
Is paying for a guaranteed placement safe?
No. Google's spam policy names advertorials and native advertising that pass ranking credit as link spam. Compliant paid placements must qualify the link, which means it passes no credit — so you are buying visibility, and should price it as such.
How do I get journalists to quote me?
Define narrowly what you are a source on, be verifiable in ninety seconds, respond fast and only where you genuinely fit, and write your answer as a quote that can be pasted in without editing.
How long does digital PR take to work?
The first three months usually produce little. Direct relationships compound, and platform responses improve as you learn which subjects get used. Most people stop before the compounding starts.
Why do journalists never reply to my emails?
Sometimes fit, and sometimes the email never arrived. Cold pitches from a domain with no sending history are exactly the profile spam filtering targets — authenticate the sending domain and send individually rather than in a batch.
What to do next
Write one sentence describing what you are a source on, narrow enough that you would be an obvious person to ask. If it takes more than one sentence, it is too broad to be useful to a journalist.
Then list the ten writers who cover that subject specifically, and read them for two weeks before contacting any of them.
Related guides
- Link building when links are not a top three factor — where PR sits in the strategy
- Linkable assets: what actually earns links — the data that gets picked up
- Link outreach emails that get replies — the pitch, and whether it arrives
- Email authentication — before any cold outreach
- Entity SEO — why being verifiable matters twice
- AI search optimisation — why unlinked mentions count now
The short version
- Define what you are a source on, in one sentenceNarrow beats broad decisively. If you cannot write it in one sentence, no journalist can work out when to call you.
- Make yourself verifiable in ninety secondsA real about page, a body of published work in that subject, consistent details across profiles, and contact details a stranger can find without a form.
- Watch before you pitchTwo weeks minimum. What these publications actually run, which writers cover your corner, and what has been covered too recently to repeat. Most rejections are about fit.
- Respond fast, and only when you genuinely fitJournalists work to deadlines and often take the first usable answer. A pattern of marginal responses gets you filtered, sometimes permanently.
- Write the response so it can be pasted inAnswer the exact question in the first sentence, two or three quotable sentences, a specific claim, then your name, title and site. Nothing else.
- Make sure the email actually arrivesPitches are cold email from domains with no sending history u2014 the exact profile filtering targets. Authenticate the domain, send from a real address, send individually.
- Track what you get and use itPublication, writer, date, whether it linked, and what prompted it. It shows which subjects get picked up, and it is the credibility evidence for the next pitch.
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Muhammad Basim has worked in digital marketing since 2013, focused on email deliverability and AI-assisted content production. He is the author of The Email Deliverability Playbook and The Email Copywriting Playbook.
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