TEARDOWN 26 · REVIEWED 2026-08-20
Connectively
Connectively (the product formerly known as HARO — Help a Reporter Out) is a marketplace connecting journalists and publishers who need expert quotes with subject-matter experts who want media placements and backlinks. Cision sold HARO to Featured.com in 2025, which relaunched it as Connectively with tiered subscriptions, AI-assisted answer drafting, and — on its top tier — a media database and journalist recommendations.
Connectively's query-matching and email-alert mechanics are simple enough to script in a weekend, but its real value is a live marketplace — 1,000+ publishers submitting real queries, 50,000+ experts responding — that no individual can conjure with a prompt.
What you lose building it yourself
- ✕An existing network of 1,000+ publishers who already trust and use the platform
- ✕50,000+ registered experts already responding — liquidity a new query board starts without
- ✕Business-tier media database and AI-powered journalist recommendations (sourcing undisclosed)
- ✕AI-assisted answer drafting from your own knowledge base (Connectively AI)
Why people still pay
A DIY build can draft answers, but it has no journalist queries to draft answers to — Connectively's subscription is buying access to a real, already-trusted network of publishers and experts, not the matching logic itself.
BUILD YOUR OWN · MATCHING ONLY, NOT THE NETWORK
The query-matching and alert-emailing mechanism is a genuinely simple weekend build with a database and a scheduled email job. What you can't build is the audience — a real, trusted stream of journalist queries and thousands of experts who already check the platform daily — which took years of two-sided marketplace growth to accumulate.
StackA database (SQLite or a spreadsheet) for storing queries and expert profiles · a source for journalist queries (a monitored inbox or an RSS feed) · a hosted LLM API to draft a suggested answer from a personal knowledge base · a transactional email API (SendGrid or Postmark) to alert experts and send responses.
Build a Python + SQLite tool for personal journalist-query tracking. Given a list of keyword topics you're an expert in, poll an RSS feed or a monitored email inbox for incoming journalist queries, store each one (topic, deadline, source, raw text) in SQLite, and use a hosted LLM API to draft a suggested short answer based on a personal knowledge-base text file you supply. Email yourself a daily digest of new matching queries with the drafted answer attached for review before you send anything, using a transactional email API (SendGrid or Postmark). Cap the digest at 20 queries per day.
Similar tools
Free alternative: SourceBottle — a separate, genuinely free journalist-source matching service covering the same core mechanic (browse queries, pitch a response), but it's a different, smaller network from Connectively's — not a way to reach Connectively's own 1,000+ publishers or use its AI-assisted drafting and media database.
QUESTIONS
Is Connectively the same company as HARO?
It's HARO's direct successor: Cision retired the original HARO brand and sold it to Featured.com in April 2025, which relaunched the service as Connectively — a new owner, but the same core query-matching concept.
Can journalists still submit queries for free?
Yes — submitting a query as a publisher/journalist has no subscription cost shown on the pricing page; the tiered pricing applies to the expert/source side responding to queries.
What does the Business tier's "media database" actually add?
A searchable database of media contacts plus AI-powered journalist recommendations and list-building tools, on top of everything in Pro — Connectively doesn't disclose whether that database is its own, licensed, or AI-assembled.