# Help a Reporter Out Is Back: Featured CEO Brett Farmiloe's First Interview as HARO's New Owner, on the BuzzStream Podcast

- Show: The BuzzStream Podcast
- Guest: Brett Farmiloe
- Published: April 19, 2025


Recorded on April 15, 2025, the day Featured acquired HARO from Cision, this BuzzStream Digital PR podcast episode with host Vince Nero is Brett Farmiloe's first interview as HARO's new owner: why Featured bought it, how it would fight spam and AI content, and the April 22 return of the email requests.

## Listen

- [Apple](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/help-a-reporter-out-haro-is-back-we-talked-to/id1737236314?i=1000704023861)
- [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/76k6i8TRaFnI2TmPeJmpvf)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruNiAb_EhyU)

## Key takeaways

- Featured acquired HARO from Cision on April 15, 2025 and sent the first email requests on April 22. HARO launched around 2008 and was acquired in 2010; its owner Vocus merged with Cision in 2014, and Connectively was discontinued in December 2024
- Do anything that does not help a reporter out and you're banned from the platform forever. Farmiloe set the rule on day one.
- Within two minutes of a Friday-afternoon test publish, about 15 people had signed up. HARO is primarily US-based but huge in the UK and Australia, and one of the premier media-request platforms in roughly 15 other countries.

> “I think at the core of it, there's magic still to be had at Help A Reporter Out.”
>
> — Brett Farmiloe, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Featured

Source: https://featured.com/press/podcast/buzzstream-haro-is-back (episode notes and full transcript).

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Brett Farmiloe · Founder & CEO, Featured · CEO, HARO & Connectively · [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettfarmiloe/) · [X](https://x.com/brettfarmiloe)
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