Newswire vs. Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Newswire
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
ACCESS Newswire is a press release distribution platform that helps clients increase their online visibility and web presence. It provides premier syndication to leading news outlets. The solution aims to empower clients with a variety of solutions to suit any budget.
$299
per month
Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a service owned by Cision (via the merger with Vocus) for reaching out to journalists.N/A
Pricing
NewswireHelp a Reporter Out (HARO)
Editions & Modules
Newswire Digital
$299
single PR
Newswire Digital Plus
$549
single PR
Newswire State
$599
single PR
Newswire National
$799
single PR
Newswire Canada
$899
single PR
Newswire UK
$899
single PR
Newswire Financial
$899
single PR
Newswire Asia
$1,299
single PR
Newswire Latin America
$1,299
single PR
Newswire Global
$1,999
single PR
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
NewswireHelp a Reporter Out (HARO)
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsBulk discounts available
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
NewswireHelp a Reporter Out (HARO)
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
NewswireHelp a Reporter Out (HARO)
Small Businesses
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
NewswireHelp a Reporter Out (HARO)
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(106 ratings)
7.7
(11 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.8
(106 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.9
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
NewswireHelp a Reporter Out (HARO)
Likelihood to Recommend
Issuer Direct Corporation
As a general rule, press releases announcing an event are more effective than product or corporate business deals press releases. This may be because events are people-centered and tend to be one of a kind. The interest in a new product, unless it is an upgrade to an existing product line or service, attracts little attention. There are exceptions; if, for example, there is an outbreak of some pathogen and the company is working on a solution, then interest is higher. News has to be related to current concerns.
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Cision
I believe I explained the main scenarios. Haro is a simple tool that pretty much gives you feedback on media opportunities you can pitch for and allows you to get in touch with the reporter, so you can get exposure and they can find people for their news. It's better suited for b2c or smb-focused companies for sure.
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Pros
Issuer Direct Corporation
  • Communication via video calls and emails. They were responsive to any questions we had.
  • Provided all the information we needed to make the decision to move forward. They had the materials around what publications and news outlets they could get into for us.
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Cision
  • Pushes PR opportunities right to your desktop several times a day
  • Provides media opportunities for just about every industry and if you monitor it regularly, on just about every topic you can think of
  • Provides an easy way to contact reporters with relevant information
  • Media outlets are verified for you
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Cons
Issuer Direct Corporation
  • The editorial process was always very hard on our sale releases. Even if we followed the same structure we used to with PR Wire they would flag it as advertorial.
  • The option for video is nice but would be better to actually embed it into a part of the release versus just floating at the bottom.
  • Would be interesting for them to share more industry-specific releases or give the option to only get emails on specific industries. The E-blasts are always too general.
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Cision
  • I've noticed that some queries are incredibly vague to the point where they could or could not apply to me. I feel like they should implement more strict parameters on what the query has to include.
  • Sometimes the outlet is marked anonymous which is not beneficial at all to those who are browsing queries. I think the outlet should be required as that is a pretty essential piece of information to consider.
  • I think they email slightly too often. My inbox gets flooded with HARO emails and I'm not able to go through all of them because they get buried. Maybe explore a new strategy to organize the huge amount of queries that get submitted every day.
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Likelihood to Renew
Issuer Direct Corporation
Newswire is simple to use and the pricing is fair. The company's network for press releases is not as large as some competitors but seems to have the best reach at a comparable price point. Newswire also offers quality support for customers, which can be hard to find in this space.
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Cision
No answers on this topic
Usability
Issuer Direct Corporation
Simple step-by-step process to get your news out to the world. Easy to understand process and explanation as you go through the steps. Each upgrade does have a charge, but it's pretty visible. Once you get familiar with their platform and systems, it becomes fairly easy to use to get your news published. It's also nice how quickly you are able to get the news out and published in the places you choose.
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Cision
It takes only a few minutes to set up your account. Then, the rest is just checking the push emails, and responding to relevant queries.
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Reliability and Availability
Issuer Direct Corporation
It was available for immediate use
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Cision
No answers on this topic
Performance
Issuer Direct Corporation
It seemed to be okay overall an we plan on continuing to use it as we expand
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Cision
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Issuer Direct Corporation
Any time I’ve had a question or needed assistance, I’ve been able to get in contact with a Newswire representative within a short amount of time. Their attention to customer satisfaction is impeccable, and they definitely go out of their way to ensure they can be of assistance to the best of their ability!
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Cision
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Issuer Direct Corporation
It is a very simple product to get started using, particularly for press releases. I have no used the other functionality so I can't say for sure how easy or difficult that might be, but my guess is that the way the platform is built makes it easy for anybody to get started.
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Cision
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Issuer Direct Corporation
Newswire hands-down beats these other platforms based on their unique price-to-feature-set ratio. We couldn't find a better value and user experience on any of these other platforms when we went through our discovery and evaluation process. All in all, we are very happy with the team and platform at Newswire.
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Cision
They are different tools. While HARO pretty much gives you feedback on media opportunities you can pitch for and allows you to get in touch with the reporter, so you can get exposure and they can find people for their news. Cision allows you to syndicate your press releases. You need to have a written press release in order to use it.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Issuer Direct Corporation
I did not purchase, I only purchased the per use newswire options
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Cision
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Issuer Direct Corporation
I have not really used this software feature to the level to scale at this point
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Cision
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Issuer Direct Corporation
I did not really use professional services other than the customer support did answer some questions from time to time
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Cision
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Issuer Direct Corporation
  • In a new technology area, Newswire has helped us build brand recognition.
  • During the pressures put on Healthcare over the past COVID periods our presence in the Marketplace have been difficult to maintain. Newswire has been key in our efforts.
  • When medical imaging AI tools exploded on the scene three years ago, there were over 150 vendors at conferences. Those that didn't promote with tools like Newswire and now gone.
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Cision
  • A hard thing to measure in terms of actual sales dollars, however, being able to provide fresh content is essential to any brand. When someone mentions they saw the published piece or it grows organically from social media, that is a win.
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ScreenShots

Newswire Screenshots

Screenshot of Newswire DashboardScreenshot of Press Writing