Help a Reporter Out returns: Scottsdale tech firm to revive journalism tool
Story Highlights Featured acquires Help A Reporter Out from Cision
HARO set to resume daily email newsletters
Featured CEO says HARO is coming back as "AI floods the internet with generic content"
Scottsdale-based Featured is reviving Help A Reporter Out after recently acquiring the online media tool from Cision, a global public relations software company headquartered in Chicago.
Featured, which connects publishers with subject matter experts to create content, announced closure of the deal on April 15.
Initially launched as a Facebook group in 2008, HARO was an online service that connected journalists with expert sources via daily email newsletters. HARO was acquired in 2010 by Vocus Inc., which later merged with Cision. In 2024, Cision discontinued HARO to focus on its other tools for PR and communications customers, according to the company.
'This is the perfect time to bring HARO back,' Brett Farmiloe, founder and CEO of Featured, said in a statement. 'As AI floods the internet with generic content, journalists need credible, human sources more than ever. Our goal is to preserve what made HARO great, while modernizing it for today's media landscape.'
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Farmiloe's decision to acquire HARO was prompted by the online service's alignment with Featured's mission of making expert knowledge more accessible to the media.
'Essentially, it was a great way for us to get more people featured in the media and at the same time help reporters get connected to sources to create incredible stories," he said. "It was a kind of a no-brainer to pursue.'
HARO is free to use for journalists and subject matter experts. It will be supported via newsletter advertisements, Farmiloe said.
Under Featured's ownership, HARO is returning to its original format of delivering daily email newsletters beginning April 22, Farmiloe said.
'The goal here is to look at the demand on the reporter side and determine how many newsletters we actually send out,' he said. 'Initially, it'll probably be once a day, but our goal is to get back to where it was before — at three times a day.'
Featured has raised $2 million since inception
Farmiloe launched Featured — then known as Terkel — in 2022 after incorporating the company a year earlier. The company created a two-sided online marketplace that helps publishers connect with vetted experts.
The company rebranded to Featured in 2023 to better communicate the company's value proposition to its customers, the Business Journal previously reported.
'A publisher is able to post a question and get a full-length article for their website, so that they could drive incremental revenue through ads or commerce content,' Farmiloe told AZ Inno in a 2023 interview. 'Then, marketers are able to answer a question and get it featured in articles on the publisher's website. That helps them build up visibility, promote themselves and their brands, and really get their name out there.'
Featured works with more than 1,000 publishers and companies, some of which include GoDaddy, American Express, Fast Company and the University of Arizona. It has a network of more than 50,000 expert sources signed up to answer questions on its platform.
Featured has raised a total of $2 million in capital from investors that include Stout Street, Sonoran Founders Fund and Great North Ventures — the latter of which also backed the company's HARO acquisition.
Featured will continue operating independently, with both its platform and HARO's revival "rooted in the belief that everyone's an expert at something,' Farmiloe said.
'The fact that we were able to negotiate this deal from here in Phoenix and bring HARO back is incredible,' Farmiloe said. '… I think a HARO revival wasn't on a lot of peoples' bingo cards, but I think it's a welcome addition to what this year brings. And it brings back a really important tool for people to utilize.'
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