In a recent episode of Majestic's SEO in 2026 podcast series, Brett Farmiloe, founder and CEO of Featured, the company behind HARO (Help a Reporter Out) and Connectively, shared insights into the evolving landscape of digital PR and media outreach. Farmiloe's central thesis is that the proliferation of AI has fundamentally altered the dynamics of journalist-source interactions, making high-volume outreach counterproductive.
"Less is more in 2026, in terms of being an outreach specialist," Farmiloe stated. "What we've seen is that AI has made it incredibly easy to reach out to more people, and it's made it more noisy and less effective as a result." This observation is grounded in the vast trove of data Featured has access to, given its position at the nexus of journalist requests and source pitches. The company runs both HARO, a service operating since 2008, and Connectively, providing a unique vantage point on the exchange.
Farmiloe elaborated on the data patterns, noting that the pitches winning on their platforms are not those sent in mass quantities but those demonstrating higher quality. "The outreach that I'm seeing winning on our platforms is the folks who aren't sending out a higher volume of pitches, but they're sending out a higher quality of pitch." He traced this quality decline to the very reason Featured acquired HARO: "The reason why HARO ended up in our ownership in the first place was a decline of quality and trust within the system, and a lot of that was targeted through the adoption of artificial intelligence."
In response, Featured has chosen to make AI authorship transparent rather than ban it outright. "We run AI detection on every single pitch," Farmiloe revealed. "We'll run a quality score on every pitch that goes through our platform - whether that's HARO, whether that's Connectively - and we'll allow journalists to see those scores. If it's 100% AI-generated, the journalists will see that. They've got a one-click filter to opt out of those pitches entirely." This approach empowers journalists while encouraging sources to invest in authenticity.
Farmiloe also challenged the conventional wisdom that speed is paramount in responding to journalist queries. "It's not necessarily being the first in line, but it's being at the top of the line with the best credentials and the most helpful response," he said, outlining a framework built on the HARO acronym - helpful, authentic, relevant, and on time.
Looking ahead to 2026, Farmiloe emphasized that the metrics marketers use to gauge success are undergoing a transformation. "In 2026, the metrics are changing. AI visibility scores are one thing that we're seeing more and more innovators measure against," he noted. "It's really around: Is my brand visible in AI and LLMs?" He described marketers shifting their focus "towards the new front page of the internet," where AI-generated answers increasingly dominate how consumers and professionals discover information.
For practitioners seeking guidance, Farmiloe steered away from tactical advice and toward a more fundamental principle. "The key takeaway is that you have knowledge to share, and that knowledge is highly valued by journalists and publications," he said. "Find a way to share that knowledge, and if you share your knowledge in a meaningful way, it will benefit your business." The full episode and transcript are available at Majestic's SEO in 2026 podcast.
