vs
HARO alternative · 2026HARO 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.
FreeMonitor journalist requests from HARO, Connectively, LinkedIn & more with an AI agentFree: let an agent watch journalist requests alongside HARO.
Connect one authenticated MCP feed to Claude, ChatGPT, or another compatible agent. It checks six included request channels every hour, uses zero Medialyst credits, and keeps every response behind human review.
- $0
- 0 credits
- Checks every hour
- Human review before anything sends
All six sources included free
Built by an AI engineer and a working publicist.
Medialyst's co-founders bring both halves of the job into the room: Elvis brings the standard he held at Google, and Carly brings the standard her own clients pay for.


Co-founder
Runs Notably, a boutique PR agency serving 25+ clients, and pitches journalists for a living.
The proof is public. Carly grades our real media lists, and we publish every grade, starting with her first: F, 27.9/100 (latest: B, 81.1). As far as we know, Medialyst is the only AI PR tool that publishes a public, recurring quality benchmark.
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 from one place | ✓ Built-in sending | ✕ — reply by email, no built-in sending |
| 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 |
Find your journalists now. No demo. No contract. No credit card.
Start in seconds and see live journalist matches for your first pitch.
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 each one wins.
Where Medialyst wins
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. Every email it delivers was validated within the last 14 days or is re-checked when you build the list. 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.
Screen HARO requests, then go past them
Medialyst's hosted MCP connection includes authorized HARO requests alongside Connectively, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, MentionMatch, and Substack, free and read-only. When a request fits, you answer it through HARO. When none does, you build a list of the journalists already covering your story and pitch them yourself.
Right-priced, public, and yours to keep
Starter is $149/mo, Pro $299, Scale $800 — published, monthly, no contract, no per-seat fees, a 14-day money-back guarantee, and your first list is free (100 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.
Where HARO wins
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.
PR Newswire — Featured.com acquires HARO from Cision ↗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.
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 total
HAROhours–daysThree places the difference shows up.
01Database 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 a different stance. Rather than relying on a feed of inbound requests, it picks journalists from what they published recently for your story and confirms the beat from their actual bylines. It keeps its own journalist database too, but every email it delivers was validated within the last 14 days or is re-checked when you build the list, and you pay 1 credit only when a verified email is delivered.
It works globally across major online news sources and many trade publications. Coverage is strongest where articles and bylines are published online; hyper-local, print-only and some regional trade sources can be thinner. The unit of value is a 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.
02Speed
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.
A verified, scored journalist list takes minutes. 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.
03AI & agent surface
HARO is something you read and respond to through its own workflow.
Medialyst makes the screening step agent-native: one hosted MCP connection normalizes authorized HARO requests alongside Connectively, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, MentionMatch, and Substack — all six platforms free — then adds journalist discovery and enrichment in Claude, ChatGPT, and other MCP clients.
The feed is read-only, costs zero credits, and does not promise every HARO request; a human still reviews and submits each response through the source network.
Two pricing philosophies, side by side.
Ours is public and posted. Here's how it sits next to HARO's own published pricing page and what named third parties report.
- 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 · cancel anytime · 14-day money-back guarantee
- Free first list — 100 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.
"Then recently I stumbled upon Elvis Sun's agentic PR tool Medialyst — 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."

"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."

"What came back was a working list with real journalists, current coverage, and contact information I could use the same day. No cross-referencing. No digging through three different tabs. One prompt and I was pitching."

"Medialyst makes it super easy to narrow down and create dedicated PR lists to reach out to the journalists that actually want to hear what you have to say. The timeline from chatting to the agent about what you have to promote to actually launching the campaign goes down to mere 1-2 hours instead of days worth of research and prospecting."

"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."

"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."

"The big media database platforms are built for agencies with full teams and retainers to match. For a boutique practice like mine, the economics just do not work. Medialyst fits the model. Beyond contact discovery, it helps me stay on top of what reporters are actually covering: the beats, the patterns, the recent angles. That is the real work of pitching well these days. Spray and pray is over, and Medialyst is built for how modern media relations actually works, at a price point that makes sense for the way I operate."

"This new company is a terrific idea—and helps PR people in ways they didn't know they needed it. The team really 'gets' this business and so many businesses just don't. Jump in. The agents are ready!"

"I needed a tool built for speed: finding the journalists who are on a story right now, in the moment, while it's still news. For how fast our world moves, this service is genuinely a big deal."

"I love Medialyst. It follows the workflow I already use, which, if I may say so myself, is the right workflow. I don't keep old Excel documents full of old emails and blast things to people. I hate the spray and pray. I like to make sure reporters are writing about the things I'm talking about, and to find new people who are. Muck Rack, Cision, all of those are basically very expensive static databases. I already know the major trade reporters. What Medialyst has helped me uncover are the people at Fast Company and The Wall Street Journal who cover packaging, and the freelancers I can get on the radar of. Muck Rack just doesn't help with that. Now when I tell Claude 'here's the person,' it pulls them through Medialyst, onto my list there, and starts gathering information about them. I haven't gotten a bounced email yet. I'd rather send a smaller list I can defend. And I'm never afraid to share it with clients, because it has everything in there. It proves its worth. My first job, as an intern, was photocopying Bacon's books into an Excel database every year. So I'm acutely aware of how hard it is to keep track of all this. This is how I would approach it myself."

"As most of us in the PR business know, media database services can be expensive, cumbersome, and too often imperfect. We pay a premium for access to AI and out-of-the-box features. We still spend significant time verifying whether a journalist is still covering the same beat, whether contact information is current, whether a reporter is truly relevant to a story, and whether outreach is actually reaching the right person. And that is only one part of the problem. Media relations itself has become increasingly fragmented. Research happens in one place, list building in another, monitoring somewhere else, and outreach through email —with PR teams constantly stitching the workflow together manually. This can leave teams overwhelmed and unsure how efficient they are. At Trier and Company, we’re excited to endorse Medialyst because it is tackling that workflow from a different direction - with AI top of mind. It's 'pitch-driven' in real time with bona fide speaking points. It's an entirely new experience. … It’s time for a change — and Medialyst is building in exactly the right direction. We’re pleased to support the team - Elvis Sun and Carly Martinetti. Excited to see where they take it from here. Count us in!"

"This is awesome and I just want to say I LOVE Medialyst! It’s well into my workflow. Landed an AP and WashPo interview today for a newsjack for two different clients. Cut down HOURS of work and enabled me to move so quickly! What a great tool!"

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.
Paste a press release, your website URL, or a one-line description of your news. Medialyst finds reporters who actually cover it, scores them by fit, and checks every email before you get it.