There’s a new HARO in town. And the service is making news.
On Sunday, the New York Times published a story about the launch of the new HARO/ProfNet competitor, the San Fransico-based NewsBasis. Ragan’s PR Daily picked up the story asking essentially why the launch was newsworthy. “Who’s doing this startup’s PR?” mused PR Daily editors.
So…day one and you’re in the New York Times…Nice.
Wondering how News Basis works or what makes it different? Here’s an explanation from the Times article:
Journalists post questions or search for sources with a particular expertise or point of view. Reporters can ask questions anonymously to avoid tipping off competitors. They can set an expiration date for their question and remove it when it has been answered to avoid getting bombarded with pitches.
Companies, public relations agencies and academics search for questions or, if they choose, get notification by e-mail whenever someone posts a relevant query.
Services like these can be particularly useful for small-business owners who want to connect with reporters but “don’t have 10 grand a month to pay a giant P.R. firm,” said Peter Shankman, founder of Help a Reporter Out, a competing service whose membership is 70 percent small businesses.
(Let me just say that MopwaterPR has affordable retainers starting out far below $10,000/month if anyone is looking for a firm. But I digress).
Interestingly enough, News Basis seems to take the HARO model and improve upon it considerably. And while we’re on the subject of HAROs, the fact that NewsBasis can be edited in real time is pretty cool, too. Since Vocus acquired HARO in June, the service has remained virtually unchanged. However, I suspect changes will be coming. Now with this new competitor on the block, those changes may come even more quickly. The only question is, will journalists use the service? We know journalists use HARO because the queries come at you three times per day.
More on how it works (video courtesy of News Basis):
One last thing: Back when I was a journalist, we didn’t have HARO. We had the phone, our connections, our staff meetings and our feet. I can only imagine how many more stories I would have been able to churn out with a HARO-like service.
This News Basis platform seems to make it even easier. Like, what’s the point of even showing up to work? Just throw in your query and let two dueling sides duke it out on News Basis and you’ve got your quotes. Add some context, a bit of editing and you’ve got a story?
A part of me salivates as a PR professional because I know this helps everyone connect much more easily. However, I wonder if connecting easily is truly the point of journalism. There’s just something about hustling up a story, and going out there with your preconceived notions, only to have them overturned. Or better yet, to have the story you thought you were going to cover get upstaged by a juicer, more exciting, more salacious story that you didn’t even know existed.
What do you think? Do sites like HARO, ProfNet and now NewsBasis make everyone’s jobs easier? Do they make journalists lazy? Do they make spin more probable? Do they add too much sheen and gloss to the news process and somewhat diminish journalistic integrity?
I’m undecided. What do you think?
I saw that NYT NewsBasis story the other day and signed up for their Beta. I received my invite today, but the site is still too buggy and won’t let me “validate my email.” I’ll try again tomorrow and am looking forward to testing it out.
You raise valid questions in your post; I believe most journalists will still rely on contacts and trusted sources for the majority of their stories. These sites–much like Twitter and Facebook–are just another tool at their disposal. These tools supplement their sourcing, they do not supplant it. If HARO didn’t cause a journalism/source sea-change, I doubt NewsBasis will.
Seventy percent of HARO’s subscribers are small businesses. This means HARO puts unique sources in touch with influencer they might not ordinarily meet. That’s what’s cool about the Web, and in many ways contributed to how I go to know you Amanda.
Hi Amanda,
I think the more tools the better. Good journalists will always analyze and synthesize what they hear or read. Of course there will be journalists who are not very good and will take the easy route, but I would separate the work product from the tools.
There are some interesting parallels to look at elsewhere. Google and wikipedia have made it really easy for students everywhere to access information very easily and rapidly, but I don’t think that has been to the detriment of education.
Darryl
NewsBasis
P.S. Margie – send me an email at darryl@newsbasis.com and I’ll see what went wrong.
Daryl,
Thanks for your comment! I agree that good journalists will analyze and synthesize what they hear. I guess I’m concerned about overworked journalists in understaffed newsrooms and the increasing pressure to produce produce produce and “get something up on the web.”
I’m curious to know how you’re populating the site with journalists. If I understand correctly, one of the things that made HARO such a success was that Peter Shankman had a large network of journalists friends that he leveraged to begin his HARO Facebook page. Do you have a similar network?
Pushy, pushy, Mopwater!
Just kidding. Changes are coming. Trust me. When super-fast small company (me) meets bigger, more… um… refined… company (Vocus) things take time.
But trust me – Good things ahead.
Peter! Welcome to Mopwater! Thank you for stopping by!
I am sure that only good things lie ahead. With the network you’ve built already and the power of the Vocus platform, how could you go wrong? I just hope things stay, ahem, affordable
And I must say I have had good stories come out of HARO both on the PR side and the journo side, so thank you for a great service.
I have also had good experiences using HARO and am confident that Vocus will only bring improvements. (Although am I the only one missing Peter’s updates on each HARO email??)
I think the more resources available to reporters AND PR Firms, the better. It definitely allows for more targeted pitching, hopefully helping journalists streamline their processes & focus on reporting the story rather than digging for it.