Before our eyes today, PR and its brothers are seeing a naked attempt at harvesting another’s users, and it just isn’t cool. Peter Shankman’s invaluable helpareporter.com (HARO) has been providing free many-times-daily queries to PR folk and a lot of others who want to be quotable sources for quite some time—doing what he can to help us get connected. Harnessing the crowd-sourcing nature of the Internet has successfully proved that literally anyone can be a source. (A recent query asked for a bat expert. Surely somebody out there knows their guano, quite right!)
(Peter Shankman)
HARO has become so successful that the tool is being co-opted – nay, stolen. Imitation is certainly the sincerest form of flattery, but petty larceny is bushleague.
The culprit is the joker behind the clunkily URL’d http://www.reporterssource.com. (Note the double “s” in the middle. Hilariously, Shankman owns http://www.reportersource.com, which points to the main HARO page.) Frankly, this squatter isn’t even trying to hide his intentions – that is – he wants to steal from our friends at HARO.
Here’s how absurd the RS guy is: He (she?) has taken to following Shankman’s multitudes of @skydiver Twitter followers and constantly – for instance, 12 times between 5 and 6 p.m. on May 28 – tweeting about his "amazing" http://www.reporterSSource.com. Little does he realize that twitterers are brilliant buggers. Shankman’s followers are blocking the doofus, (name deleted to protect the idiot) en masse.
So, (doofus' email address redacted), if that’s your real name (reporterssource.com is registered with ICANN anonymously) we at Bad Pitch have our eye on you! Consumers know and trust a good product, and cheap imitations will not be tolerated, especially when that product is so hard to come by.
A lot of the PR game is based on intangibles. When a good, solid product comes into being that gives a pro something to sink his teeth into, it is worth its weight in platinum. Peter Shankman has created such a product, and our community will rightly reject outright the usurpers. Shankman has been getting emails from a bunch of fans asking “What is going on with this copycat?” To which his response has been: “Nuttin’ but a cheap wannabe!” It’s simply another example of some bad seed who wants to make a quick buck off someone else’s smartness. (This is not the first time someone has tried to unsuccessfully copy the HARO thang. See the PR Newser story here for more dirt: http://bit.ly/HAROvsExpertClick)
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Speaking of Peter: In some nowhere-near-as-ridiculous but truly exciting news, HARO announced just today addition of veteran PR man and executive Thom Brodeur to its senior management team. Brodeur joined the company as its COO, where he assumes the kit and kaboodle responsibility for corporate strategy, marketing, sales, biz development and ops.
(Thom Brodeur)
After serving as SVP of global strategy and development at Marketwire for two years, Brodeur left in April. Before Marketwire, he was a VP at Brodeur Partners (or Brodeur Worldwide), providing marketing, PR and plain old good counsel to companies in the consumer, high technology, aerospace, services and telecoms. Incidentally, Thom Brodeur is not related to Brodeur Partners founder John Brodeur. How do you like them apples?
Prior, he was a start-up software and SP sales guy with, among others, AOL Latin America, Johnson & Johnson and Paramount.
During his tenure at Marketwire, Brodeur worked on the release of the company’s Social Media 2.0 Plus product suite, that thing to help marketers craft social media press releases and includes iTunes podcast integration.
In announcing the news, Shankman said with trademark jumping up and down: "Bringing Thom in made sense on several levels, not the least of which being his impressive track record for corporate growth.” Amen to that.
More on HARO and the rest of the PR world via http://www.twitter.com/laermer
With all do respect to Thom...he looks like a digital/photoshop creation in that pic.
ReplyDeleteThanks for calling out the b.s. as usual though Richard.
shame!
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting us know!
Dr. Letitia Wright
The Wright Place TV Show
http://wrightplacetv.com
www.twitter.com/drwright1
Hey!
ReplyDeleteI'm one of the owners of ReportersSource.com and wanted to take the opportunity to respond to your blog :-)
I didn't realize that anyone was trying to steal HARO subscribers because we simply aren't. We're a similar service but we are different from HARO in that we check the pitches and send them through to the reporters ourselves. It is extra work but our writers appreciate it because they don't have to worry about getting an inbox full of off-topic pitches or pitches that are stretched to seem like they fit a story when in reality, they simply don't. We weed through all of that on behalf of the writers using our services. This is our #1 distinction from HARO and some writers like what we offer and some like what he offers. We attract completely different types of writers. We are not interested at all in "stealing" anything from Peter Shankman. He's done an awesome job and we're not out to take away from that at all!
As far as following Shankman's followers on Twitter, my brother was the one to do that and his reasoning makes sense. If someone is interested in HARO, why wouldn't they be interested in Reporter's Source as well? We get different media leads. Isn't it a dis-service to clients to not be a part of both HARO and Reporter's Source, simply on the basis of personal loyalty? Who knows what opportunities are being missed!
Cheers,
Stephanie Davis
co-founder
Reporter's Source
www.ReportersSource.com
Stephanie, Please come up with an original idea and maybe we can resepct you. Julie
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, Richard!
ReplyDeleteMy biggest peeve isn't that you're pissing off my journalists and sources - that'll come back to kick your ass without my help at all - I've seen it happen before.
My biggest pet peeve with you guys is that you assume you're smarter than the media. You blatantly make it clear that "YOU DECIDE" which people DESERVE to get their queries to the media, and which deserve to die a quiet death in the forest.
Who the hell are you to choose? How pompous! How brazenly ballsy (in a bad way) and how flat-out "we believe we're better than you." Seriously? EW. Or to phrase it more scientifically: Ew. Ew. Ew.
You really think journalists appreciate you telling them that they can't make their own decisions, and need some never-before-heard-of site to do it for them?
Be careful, guys... Assuming you're better than everyone else is what caused the fall of great empires... And sites that blatantly steal ideas then think they're smarter than everyone else, too. great
-Peter Shankman
PS: Ew.
My name is Gaye and I am the other co-founder of Reporter's Source. I have been a news producer for 17 years. 13 of those years have been in a Top 20 market. During that time, I have produced every newscast there is. In my experience, I have covered breaking news from the standoff in Waco, 9/11 and the anniversaries, the fatal mission of the space shuttle Columbia, four presidential elections, numerous hurricanes including Katrina and tornadoes just to name a few. In my years as a producer, I have earned the respect of my colleagues for my news judgment on a daily basis and in breaking news situations. My voice is the one they want in their ear, telling them what's going on and sifting thru the information to get to the facts. There is very little time in a newsroom or a breaking news situation to get sidetracked by distractions, especially in this climate with all of the layoffs. During my time as a news producer, I have also produced variety shows & specials which means I also worked side by side with PR firms and celebrities of all caliber. I also gained the respect of the PR firms that I worked with because of my honesty and dedication to getting it right for everyone involved. Now that we have that out of the way.
ReplyDelete1. "Your journalists & sources." The last time I checked, journalists are not property and many do not like to be referred to as such because they have a duty to be unbiased and to get the facts straight. Ownership infers otherwise. As far as your sources go, Twitter is a public domain and we can follow anyone we choose. They have an option to follow us back or not. We have never "stolen" anyone from you.
2. We never assume to be smarter than anyone else. I feel I know what journalists are looking for because I am one. As the writer of today's blog on this website wrote, "reporters and analysts are glazed over from the hundreds of newsless missives shot through that PR cannon." Our service seeks to wade through that and save everyone precious time. In our two and a half months of being in business as Reporter's Source, out of the hundreds if not thousands of submissions we have received, only a handful may not have been forwarded. Some that were unclear, I personally worked with the person that submitted it to clear things up to make sure the reporter received the best information available from that source. We don't think we're better than anyone, we try to make things better for everyone.
We offer the same basic service with a different approach. We also bring a unique perspective to the business. Stephanie Davis, the other co-founder, is a business woman with years of experience. I am a journalist. Combined we bring something different to our business. There are no games or stunts. Our service is simple, fast and honest. We know that credibility is something to be earned and protected. Neither business has even begun to grasp the potential of what is out there and while we can dream, neither business will ever have it all. There is more than enough to go around. There is room for both businesses and many of the other businesses out there.
I encourage everyone including journalists to try both businesses and even check out similiar ones. Let them decide which one best fits their needs. I'm sure they'll find several services to the their liking and both journalists and sources will reap the benefits. Stephanie was right when she asked "isn't it a dis-service to clients to not be a part of both HARO and Reporter's Source, simply on the basis of personal loyalty? Who knows what opportunities are being missed!"
Gaye
Reporter's Source
www.reporterssource.com
I'll say it one more time. It's a dis-service to journalists to restrict their access to sources by claiming "you know what's best." Which is exactly what you're doing.
ReplyDeleteEnd of story.
One final question - If you're both the co-founders, who the hell is @SMcCullah, and why does he keep bothering people? Just curious.
Best of luck to you. Should be fun to watch, if nothing else.
Doesn't anyone realize that Profnet has been supplying this service for years? HARO simply charges advertisers rather than subscribers. Profnet still does a much better job and is more highly regarded than HARO - reporters are starting to realize they get a lot of junk pitches through HARO because subscribers are not all PR professionals.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, there are a number of ways to connect reporters with quality sources. Why is HARO the only approved method now? Profnet still seems like the way to go.
ReplyDeleteOk, I got to weigh in here. Having used Profnet for a thousand years, and HARO for 16 months or so, I love them both. HOWEVER, I am annoyed - as the writer of this post - that the ONLY anonymous posts here say "Profnet is great." It leads me to believe that, like AOL chatrooms of the 90s, someone is playing a game here and pretending to be anti-HARO and pro-Profnet. Not nice. And wholly uncool. Let's just say they both play a part in the PR world and each one has a different style and way of doing biz (Profnet is, let me say, wildly expensive, and yes HARO is advertiser supporter but Profnet wishes it could be). Anyway, I despise lazy/Internet-dumb Anonymous posters, and so I'll end with one thought: IF you love Profnet so much say who you are. Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteRichard,
ReplyDeleteI don't have a blog so this may be rather ignorant to ask but can you see the IP address of the posts when you approve them? I have a great IP address locator to at least know the region the post is coming from! I'd also love to know who posted. It seems like Profnet might've felt a bit left out and decided to come over and play? ;-) If it's not someone directly associated with Profnet, why wouldn't they share their identity??
Cheers,
Stephanie
Why does Peter Shankman and everyone else involved not think there should be competition? If they aren't a threat to your business, why do you care? And Peter, I can understand your peeve where the competition would exploit your system and spam journalists. Thats already illegal, you cant spam people and you should try pursuing any legal action you can to stop it. But whats the problem with some good old fashioned competition...
ReplyDeleteWho invented the computer..who came after and made it better? It sounds like you are pissed that an incumbent could duplicate your service and be better at it, but I think that the chances of them succeeding is a .000000001. You should worry about sustaining a competitive advantage and not worrying about the incumbents.
And about those incumbents: there will be many...hell I am now thinking how I can make your service better... Are you really trying to stymie my entrepreneurial spirit by being Mr. Goliath? Or weren't you at one time the David in the situation starring at PRWeb? cmon seriously
And I am remaining anon because of any backlash I get as a result from speaking the truth. And I have no affiliation with anyone involved here, I am just a true believer in economic principals and capitalism in this situation.
I wrote the comment above (not in reference to PRWeb, in reference to the reporterssource.com chance of success equaling .0000000001.)
ReplyDeleteI am firm believer that competition will breed better products or services. Its that simple. And I did (before my comment above) create findasource.org in an effort to improve the service by creating a better matching service (oh no, will HARO steal my idea and make a better matching service). Once again, products and services evolve into better things and throughout history there are countless examples of better products/services coming from 'rip offs' than the original inventor. Sorry about that, but history isnt changing.
I am, just like HARO, completly against any type of scraping or SPAMing in anyway shape or form. Thats 100% abuse and Peter should try to go after those f***ers. I hate SPAM, but whats wrong with some competition, seriously? I will shut my 'rip off' down if I hear a valid point (besides the likelihood of my success being less than .000001). My suggestion for Shankman is that he embraces true competition and gets some type of sustainable advantage if he hopes to be the leader in the space in 5 years. His system is successful, but I truly didnt see an special sauce to HARO so I put my 2 cents in (and I am sure there will be another 1000 incumbents following). Only time will tell.
(and now queue the hate)