Since its relaunch in April 2025, HARO (Help a Reporter Out) has sent more than 100 million emails connecting journalists with sources, according to data released by Featured, the company that owns the service. The milestone provides a window into how artificial intelligence, spam, and increasingly crowded inboxes are reshaping the relationship between journalists and PR professionals.
HARO's 2026 statistics reveal that as communication volume grows, both journalists and sources are prioritizing authenticity and filtering. More than one in five pitches submitted through HARO are now entirely AI-generated, and 35% of journalists choose to block AI-generated responses when they submit a request. Additionally, a user is banned every 23 minutes for spam or violating terms of service, and nearly one-third of journalist requests are rejected during approval because of quality and legitimacy concerns.
The most striking finding: human-written pitches are about three times more likely to be used by journalists than AI-generated ones. “Human-written pitches are about 3x more likely to get featured than AI-written ones,” said Brett Farmiloe, CEO of HARO. “The sources who stand out typically come from fully human teams who can provide credible information, respond to what the journalist actually asked for, and make the journalist’s job easier. As inboxes get more crowded, being helpful becomes the differentiator.”
Every pitch submitted through HARO is analyzed using AI detection technology provided by Pangram. Journalists can also report unhelpful pitches, which triggers a manual review by the HARO team.
These data points underscore a growing challenge for PR professionals: as access to journalists increases, earning their attention becomes harder. In crowded inboxes, relevance, credibility, and expertise are becoming critical ways for sources to stand out. The findings suggest that while AI can help scale outreach, it cannot replicate the nuanced understanding and authenticity that journalists seek from human sources.
HARO, founded in 2008, was shut down by its previous owner in December 2024 and relaunched by Featured in April 2025. It delivers journalist requests directly to subscribers, giving subject matter experts, publicists, and PR professionals opportunities to respond to relevant media inquiries and earn coverage. Featured is an AI co-pilot for PR that helps communications professionals find earned media opportunities, draft responses, and secure coverage across journalist requests, podcasts, bylined articles, speaking engagements, awards, and generative engine optimization (GEO). The company owns and operates HARO and Connectively, which connect journalists and publishers with subject matter experts.
