Help a Reporter Out (HARO) vs PR Newswire

Likelihood to Recommend

I think for junior staff to learn the very basics, Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is helpful. I think it is not a bad thing to check daily, but there are much better and thoughtful ways to get stories for clients. Checking once or twice a day is fine, but wouldn't rely on it to do my job.

Read full review

Verified User

Account Manager in Marketing

Public Relations & Communications Company, 51-200 employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

PR Newswire is a terrific solution for ensuring that news is distributed in a way that is findable and searchable. It also automatically ties the news to ticker symbols. It's not a useful or meaningful solution for actually securing news coverage. It still requires picking up the phone and pitching media.

Read full review

Verified User

Vice-President in Other

Public Relations and Communications Company, 51-200 employees

View all 13 answers on this topic

Pros

Connects reporters to experts
Allows organization to gain media exposure by helping reporters with specific requests and questions
Updates regularly, with three daily emails
Establishes relationships between members of your organization and reporters

Read full review

Jessica Herrera

Media Specialist

Center for Biological DiversityEnvironmental Services, 51-200 employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

User-friendly - PR Newswire has a very user-friendly website that makes it simple and easy to get a news release set up for a distribution relatively quickly. You can also save your selections from a previous distribution to make it go even faster. Since I am pretty much always sending out my releases to the same distribution list, all I have to do is check that box.
Customer support - When you submit a release via the web portal, you have several options about when it will be released. I typically want my releases to go out as quickly as possible, but even then I know an account representative will take a look at my release and accompanying multimedia materials and give me a quick call to confirm and make sure everything is set before officially sending it out. It's a helpful step without making the process cumbersome.
Reports - PR Newswire provides timely and comprehensive reports, so it's easy to tell the where the news release went.

Read full review

Cindy Arco

Public Relations Manager, Florida Region

ComcastTelecommunications, 10,001+ employees

View all 13 answers on this topic

Cons

Since the request for info is so open to response, there are always people sending replies that have little to do with the posted topic.

Read full review

Verified User

Contributor in Professional Services

Publishing Company, 1-10 employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

The pricing structure is comprehensive, depending on how far you want your release to go.
Adding multi-media, such as photos, increases visibility quite a bit but PR Newswire charges extra for photos.
PR Newswire also charges an annual fee for storing your logo, which I think should be free for organizations that already have an account (and pay a membership fee).

Read full review

Richard Angeloni

Director of Integrated Marketing Communciations

Brown & Toland PhysiciansHospital & Health Care, 201-500 employees

View all 13 answers on this topic

Usability

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) 10.0

Based on 1 answer

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.

Read full review

Melanie Downey

Course Creator and Coach/Mentor, The Publicity Workshop

Melanie Downey Brand PRPublic Relations and Communications, 1-10 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

PR Newswire 8.0

Based on 1 answer

PR Newswire is an industry leader and gives the user the ability to send out a press release, to a wide audience, very quickly and easily. The pricing is on par with other companies (perhaps they are a bit higher) but they do send useful "visibility" reports after a release is distributed, which is helpful when trying to explain ROI to C suite leaders. You also can email or fax your own distribution list, which is helpful and reduces the need for a media monitoring service

Read full review

Richard Angeloni

Director of Integrated Marketing Communciations

Brown & Toland PhysiciansHospital & Health Care, 201-500 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Support Rating

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) 1.0

Based on 2 answers

I have never used their support team before, so I cannot judge. I assume it would be fine.

Read full review

Verified User

Account Manager in Marketing

Public Relations & Communications Company, 51-200 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

PR Newswire 6.5

Based on 4 answers

Overall, it's a great product, but it is very expensive. There are cheaper programs out there but they also do not hit as many top-tier outlets as PR Newswire does. I recommend PR Newswire when you have important news that may not get the attention it deserves, and that you want in the hands of top-tier outlets.

Read full review

Verified User

Account Manager in Marketing

Public Relations & Communications Company, 51-200 employees

View all 4 answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

These products I mentioned are a little different because they are used by more mainstream journalists which is a huge advantage. PR Newswire is email-based product similarly to HARO but Cision is a huge database of media contact information which is great if you want to take the initiative to find something on your own. HARO is great because it goes the extra step in connecting both parties based on a common idea. It's similar to PR Newswire but the fact that it's free makes it a great resource for anyone

Read full review

Verified User

Employee in Corporate

Food & Beverages Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

PR Newswire and Businesswire are familiar, similar products in terms of newswire distribution services. Many times it comes down to client familiarity with one service over the other, the cost per distribution, the reach of distribution, as well as other related fees, i.e., you have to be a member of PR Newswire to use the service and then pay fees on top of that for individual distributions.

Read full review

Dan Lobring

Vice President, Marketing Communications

rEvolutionMarketing and Advertising, 51-200 employees

View all 13 answers on this topic

Return on Investment

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.

Read full review

Lisa Strong

CEO and President

Strong Marketing, IncMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

We lost one of our pre paid distributions due to the expiration date
We would like to see more communication between the client and the representative or account manager
We have had success in getting larger publications to pick up our over the wire publication

Read full review

Ashley Taylor

Director of International Branding and Marketing

Allied Dispatch SolutionsLogistics & Supply Chain, 201-500 employees

View all 13 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

PR Newswire Editions & Modules

Edition

Newswire Digital	$199¹
Newswire Digital Plus	$449¹
Newswire State	$499¹
Newswire National	$799¹
Newswire Global	$1,649¹
Newswire Canada	$649¹
Newswire UK	$649¹
Newswire Asia	$649¹
Newswire Latin America	$949¹
Newswire Financial	$799¹

per release

Additional Pricing Details

—