HARO is a query newsletter. Medialyst builds the list for you.
HARO (Help A Reporter Out) was acquired by Cision, rebranded to Connectively in March 2024, and shut down on December 9, 2024 — then Featured.com bought HARO back and revived it in April 2025 as what it always was: a free, ad-supported email newsletter of journalist requests, sent three times a day. (Featured runs the paid Connectively platform as a separate product now.) The HARO model is reactive: you wait for a reporter to post a query, then pitch alongside everyone else who got the same email. Medialyst flips it around — you find your own newsjacking opportunities from live news and pitch any number of journalists you choose, proactively, instead of competing in a public queue.
The honest comparison.
Pulled from public HARO documentation, customer reviews, and our own product. We update this page when either side ships something new.
| Capability | Medialyst | HARO |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the right journalist | ||
| Find journalists for this story | ✓ Story-specific relevance scoring | ✕ — you answer queries the crowd also sees |
| Understand a journalist's beat | ✓ Reads past articles + recent coverage | ~ Query text only; no beat analysis |
| Analyze past writing | ✓ Grounded in actual articles | ✕ — no per-journalist article reading |
| Per-journalist pitch angles | ✓ Personalized angles + pitch drafts | ✕ — you write each pitch yourself |
| Data freshness | ✓ Live news article search in real time | ~ Email digest, sent 3×/day |
| Refine a list with natural language | ✓ “Remove anyone inactive in 6 months” | ✕ Not available |
| Find more like top performers | ✓ “Find 20 more like the top 5” | ✕ Not available |
| Add custom enrichment columns | ✓ “Research if they use affiliate links” | ✕ Not available |
| Pitching & sending | ||
| Email verification | ✓ Multi-step verification waterfall | ~ Pangram AI-detection on inbound pitches, not contact verification |
| Send + track from one place | ✓ Built-in send + tracking | ✕ — reply by email, no built-in tracking |
| Pricing & setup | ||
| Time to first pitch | ✓ Minutes | ~ Hours to days — wait for a relevant query |
| Free trial | ✓ First list free | ~ Free email newsletter |
| Contract | ✓ None — cancel anytime | ~ None — but reactive-only |
| Price | ✓ from $149/mo | ~ Free (ad-supported) |
| Agent-native workflows | ||
| API access | ✓ Public REST API | ✕ Not available |
| Remote MCP support | ✓ Hosted remote MCP server | ✕ Not available |
| Agent-native workflows | ✓ Usable directly inside Claude, ChatGPT & Cursor | ✕ Not available |
| CSV import / re-enrichment from competitor exports | ✓ Upload any CSV — the agent re-verifies & re-scores | ✕ Not available |
Three reasons teams switch.
We're not trying to out-database HARO. We're trying to out-result them — by being more accurate, faster to act on, and honest about price.
A smaller list that actually replies.
Instead of a giant static database, Medialyst enriches journalists live and verifies every email in real time before it reaches you — global coverage across any outlet, journalist, or beat, researched for your story rather than pulled from a stale row.
From story to sent pitch in minutes.
Paste a release, a URL, or a topic. Medialyst proposes journalists, scores them 0–100 by fit, and drafts a tailored angle for each — no demo call, no contract, no multi-week onboarding.
Pricing on the website. Not in a sales deck.
Every plan and limit is public. Starter is $97/mo billed annually (or $149 month-to-month, cancel anytime) — and your first list is free: 300 credits, no credit card. No lock-in, no “let’s get on a call.”
Why people switch from HARO.
The platform you remember no longer works the way it did
HARO was acquired by Cision, rebranded to Connectively in March 2024, and shut down completely on December 9, 2024. Featured.com bought HARO back in April 2025 and revived it as a free email newsletter. If you're searching for "the HARO you used to use," it's been through three owners and two deaths — and many people land here precisely because the version they relied on is gone.
PR Newswire — Featured.com acquires HARO from Cision ↗You're pitching the same journalists as the entire crowd
The HARO model is reactive: a journalist posts a query, it goes out to everyone, and you respond alongside hundreds of other sources fighting for the same slot. Journalists themselves describe the result — "about 85% of the responses I'd get from queries were purely SEO-driven. It wasn't about sharing expertise or being helpful — it was about backlinks." Medialyst is proactive: you find your own news hook and choose exactly which journalists to pitch, so you're not one of a hundred replies in a public inbox.
Amanda Lauren (journalist) — HARO relaunch controversy ↗AI spam is exactly what broke HARO the first time
When Cision ran the platform as Connectively, AI-generated responses flooded every query, fake "experts" with AI bios piled in, and journalists couldn't find real sources — "every other pitch seemed like nothing more than lazy AI-generated nonsense from someone who definitely wasn't an expert." HARO's fix was to add Pangram AI-detection in July 2025 so journalists can filter pitches out. Medialyst sidesteps the whole dynamic: instead of helping you fire one more pitch into a crowded queue, it researches the right journalists for your specific story so the pitch belongs there in the first place.
Ahrefs — HARO has been dead for a while ↗Reactive-only means you wait for the news to come to you
On a query newsletter, you can only pitch what journalists happen to ask about today — if there's no relevant query, there's no opportunity. Medialyst inverts that: it searches live news in real time, surfaces the angles where you have a story, and lets you build a targeted list the moment something breaks — proactive discovery instead of refreshing your inbox and hoping a fitting request appears.
Prezly — the best HARO/Connectively alternatives ↗Where HARO wins.
No tool is best at everything. Here's where HARO is genuinely strong — so you can decide honestly.
Free and genuinely simple
HARO under Featured.com is back to basics — a free, ad-supported email newsletter sent three times a day to 1,000,000+ sources, with no platform to learn. For someone who just wants occasional source requests in their inbox at zero cost, that simplicity is real. "Simplicity — and email — can be new again," as Featured's CEO put it.
Warm, opted-in journalist demand
When a reporter posts to HARO, they are explicitly asking for sources — that opted-in intent is genuinely valuable, and it's a signal a proactive tool has to find for itself. If your strategy leans reactive and you have the time to scan three emails a day for a fit, that inbound demand is a real, free top-of-funnel.
A brand and reach reporters still recognize
HARO is a 15-year-old name with a million-plus sources on the list, and plenty of working journalists still fire off a HARO query out of habit. That two-sided familiarity means a steady supply of requests flowing in — exactly what a reactive model needs to keep working.
Where Medialyst pulls ahead.
The flip side: here's where Medialyst is the stronger choice over HARO for finding and pitching the right journalists.
Proactive discovery, not a public queue
Instead of waiting for a journalist to post a query the whole crowd can see, Medialyst finds your own newsjacking opportunities from live news and lets you pitch any number of journalists you choose. You're not the hundredth reply in a shared inbox — you're the source who reached out first with a story built for that reporter.
Fit for this story, with verified contacts
Medialyst reads hundreds of articles relevant to your specific announcement, scores reporters by fit, and tells you why each one would write it — grounded in their actual recent coverage — then verifies every email in real time before it's delivered to you. A query feed can only tell you what someone asked about today; Medialyst tells you who covers your beat, why, and how to reach them directly.
One job, done exceptionally
Medialyst does exactly one thing: find the right journalist for your story, and make that the best experience on the market. Every credit of effort goes into relevance, real coverage, and verified contacts — not a newsletter of whatever the crowd was asked about today.
Right-priced, public, and yours to keep
Starter is $149/mo, Pro $299, Scale $800 — published, monthly, no contract, no per-seat fees, 30-day money-back, and your first list is free (300 credits, no card). Already have a media list or an old HARO export? Upload it and the agent re-verifies and re-scores every contact — so you start from what you've already got, not an empty inbox.
Pitching the same announcement.
One launch, two tools. Here's what a comms lead actually does to get a story-specific pitch out the door.
Medialyst9 min totalHAROhours–daysThree places the difference shows up.
Database quality
HARO was never a journalist database — it's a request newsletter, and its "data" is whatever queries journalists choose to post.
That's a different unit of value than a researched contact: you don't get a list of the right reporters for your story, you get a stream of whatever happened to be asked today, broadcast to everyone at once. The quality problem the model is famous for is AI spam — "every other pitch seemed like nothing more than lazy AI-generated nonsense" — which is why HARO had to add Pangram AI-detection so journalists could filter responses out. Medialyst takes the opposite stance.
Rather than a feed of inbound requests, it enriches journalists live at the moment you build a list: pulling recent articles, confirming the beat, and verifying the email in real time before it's ever shown to you. Coverage is global — any outlet, any journalist, any beat — and the unit of truth is a freshly-researched contact for your specific story, not a public query you're racing the crowd to answer. The practical result is that you control who you pitch and why, instead of being one of many sources reacting to the same request.
Speed
On a query newsletter, "speed" means how fast you can react once a relevant request appears — and that's the catch: if no journalist posts a query that fits, there's nothing to react to.
You're scanning three emails a day waiting for something to match. Medialyst removes the waiting entirely. You paste a press release, a URL, or a topic, and the agent goes to work immediately — searching live news in real time and building a verified, scored journalist list without anyone needing to ask for sources first.
The average time from describing your story to a verified, scored journalist list is four minutes and thirty-two seconds. That matters most for newsjacking: when a story breaks and you have a timely angle, you don't have to hope a journalist files a query about it — you find the reporters already covering it and reach out, while the window is open.
AI & agent surface
This is where the models diverge entirely.
HARO is something you read — an email digest you operate on its terms, and your output is a pitch dropped into a shared queue. There's no way to drive it from your own tools, no structured journalist data to pull, no API surface for an agent to compose with. Medialyst is built agent-first.
A public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server mean you can run journalist discovery and enrichment directly from inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor, wire it into your own scripts, or hand it to an internal agent. sh, a free open-source PR skill set any AI agent can load to research angles, find journalists, and draft pitches like a full PR team. A request newsletter can't be a component in your workflow; Medialyst can.
Two pricing philosophies, side by side.
Ours is public and posted. Here's how it sits next to what HARO customers tell us they encounter.
- Starterfounders & small teams$97/mo annual
- Proin-house comms & PR teams$194/mo annual
- Scaleagencies & high-volume teams$520/mo annual
- No contract · no per-seat fees · 30-day money-back
- Free first list — 300 credits, no credit card
- One unified product — no modules priced separately
- HARO (under Featured.com) is free and ad-supported — a journalist-request email newsletter sent three times a day, with no paid tier for sources. The separate Connectively platform is the paid product. Medialyst's first list is free; paid plans start at $149/mo.
- Pricing published online
In the words of Medialyst users.
Real customers, approved for use. Your results depend on your story and your list — these are theirs.
"My new favorite PR intern. With a few detailed prompts, the agent comes up with a pretty targeted list of journalists. The best thing is it gives a summary of their recent articles before I commit to reading every piece."
"Medialyst is the only tool that keeps up with the pace our firm needs to move at across our High Growth B2B Tech clients. The journalist targeting is sharp as well as accurate, and Elvis actually ships when you give him feedback."
"It's 100% customizable to you & your clients. It's affordable. It's built by someone who gets back to you quickly & truly wants to give the people what they want — MORE time."
"Medialyst takes the guesswork out of journalist outreach. It vets your pitch for suitability, matches it to the right journalists, and hands you their most accurate contact details — so instead of firing off cold emails into the void, you're landing in the right inboxes. The result? Fewer emails sent, more stories published."
"This is a must-have if you work in media, it's easy to use and saves you a lot of time! The customer service has been some of the best I have experienced."
Paste a story. Get your journalist list in minutes.
Drop in a press release, your website URL, or a one-line description of your news. Medialyst reads what's relevant, finds reporters who actually cover it, scores them by fit, and verifies every email — your first list is free, no credit card.
Common questions about switching from HARO.
Is HARO still around — what happened to HARO?
What's the difference between HARO and Connectively now?
What is the best HARO alternative?
HARO vs Medialyst — what's the difference?
Is there a free HARO alternative?
Can I import my HARO or media list contacts into Medialyst?
HARO is a newsletter. Build a list that's actually yours.
Start free with 300 credits and no credit card. Paste your story and get a verified, story-specific list of journalists in minutes.