HARO’s Back from the Dead—But These 5 Tools Are Way Better
Don’t waste your time on zombie platforms. These are the media matchmaking tools that actually work in 2026.
Joni Sweet is a seasoned writer, editor, and content strategist with 13+ years of media experience. In this newsletter, Joni reveals insider tips to help PR professionals sharpen their pitches, avoid rookie mistakes, land coverage for their clients, and build stronger relationships with writers.
In case you haven’t heard, the original HARO’s back from the dead. Again.
HARO used to be a goldmine for journalists. Then it turned into a spammy landfill—something I’ve talked about before.
As the platform grew, so did the flood of irrelevant and self-promotional responses from people chasing backlinks, even if they were in no way qualified to comment on a specific story. I once asked for medical doctors to interview for a health story and got responses from SEO specialists and lawn care pros.
It was a massive waste of time, hence why I turned to the Substack you’re reading now to search for the best sources (and I find 90% of what I’m looking for from subscribers like you! Thanks!).
And now, like a zombie, HARO has clawed its way out of the grave.
I don’t think this is a platform anyone needs to go back to—many other, better ones have popped up to take its place (more on that in a moment). I’m not surprised that most of the conversations I’ve seen about the HARO relaunch in private PR and writer groups have been filled with skepticism.
But perhaps more alarming, HARO (and platforms like it) are now playgrounds for shady backlink farms armed with AI to generate shady responses to journalists’ inquiries in mere seconds. My friend Amanda Lauren- Your PR BFF went down a Reddit rabbit hole to see what people thought about HARO coming back and what she found wasn’t pretty.
Shady companies were promising to use AI to respond to inquiries on HARO and other platforms to get “amazing backlinks for only $300/month!” This isn’t just a potentially annoying time suck for journalists who (thanks to new anti-freelancer policies killing our business models and your PR strategies) literally can’t afford to waste time sifting through garbage responses to our inquiries anymore.
Sure, some PR pros still miss those tidy HARO emails filled with journalist queries. But let’s be real—those days are over. So is the media climate that made HARO useful in the first place (that’s why elevating your pitching game is so important!).
What worked in 2016 doesn’t work in 2026. We’re operating in a media landscape where journalists are being financially crushed and trust is harder to earn than ever. If you want meaningful placements for your clients, you need tools (and strong relationships with journalists) that reflect today’s reality. And fortunately, there are several other tools worth trying, instead.