Introduction

Just 14 months after its launch, Connectively is calling it quits. In an email that hit our inboxes last week, the platform announced its permanent shutdown on December 9, 2024 - a move that left PR professionals and journalists scrambling, but few actually surprised. After HARO's 15-year run and Connectively's brief stint, this really is the end of an era…

History of HARO & Connectively

To understand why this shutdown matters, we need to look at where it all began…

2008:  HARO (Help a Reporter Out) started in 2008 as Peter Shankman's simple Facebook group connecting journalists with sources. The concept was straightforward: three emails a day, five days a week, featuring journalists' queries and letting sources pitch their expertise. No frills, just results. The platform grew from zero to over a million users, becoming the go-to service for media connections, boasting a large user base of over 800,000 sources and 55,000 journalists at its peak.

2010: HARO was initially acquired by Vocus, Inc., which later merged with Cision in 2014. Cision's acquisition of HARO kept the core service intact for over a decade. The platform maintained its basic format: free, accessible, and effective. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. Journalists got their sources, experts got their media coverage, and everyone understood the system.

2023: Enter Connectively. The platform introduced significant changes like a new pay-per-pitch model ($1 per pitch after 10 free monthly pitches), subscription tiers ranging from $29 to $149 monthly, and promises of AI-spam prevention. The transformation aimed to modernize the service with features like enhanced search capabilities, keyword alerts, and a new user interface.

2024: As of November 8, 2024, Cision announced that Connectively would be discontinued by December 9, 2024. This decision was made to focus on enhancing CisionOne, their core offering for PR professionals13. The challenges faced by Connectively included technical issues and difficulties in user adoption of the new paid model.

Why Connectively Failed 

When a platform dies, it rarely happens overnight. Connectively's story is no different, here are some reasons we’ve uncovered that took down what was once PR's most promising platform.

Reason 1: Problematic Pricing Structure

The introduction of a monetization model fundamentally misunderstood user behavior and market dynamics. The $1 per-pitch fee, while seemingly modest, created significant barriers for high-volume users. For PR agencies managing multiple clients, this translated to thousands in monthly costs. The tiered subscription model ($29-$149) failed to provide sufficient value to justify the investment, particularly when compared to emerging alternatives in the market.

Reason 2: Over-Engineering of Core Services

In attempting to modernize HARO's proven model, Connectively inadvertently complicated essential functions. The straightforward three-emails-per-day system was replaced with a complex interface that required additional steps for basic tasks. According to users, average time to submit a pitch increased from 2 minutes on HARO to 7 minutes on Connectively. This complexity directly impacted user engagement and satisfaction rates.

Reason 3: Deteriorating Media Participation

Perhaps most critically, Connectively experienced a significant decline in journalist engagement. This decline created a domino effect: fewer quality queries led to reduced source participation, which in turn further decreased media interest. The platform's value proposition fundamentally relied on active journalist participation, and its erosion proved terminal.

What Users Are Saying

Back in 2008, HARO was this super simple, actually useful tool with like 1,000 users. One user remembers when it actually helped reporters find sources without all the fancy stuff. Fast forward to now, and people can barely remember the last time they even bothered sending a pitch through the platform.

According to another user, Cision apparently has this funny habit. They buy stuff that's working great, mess around with it until it doesn't work anymore, and then... well, you can guess the rest. 

The whole thing boils down to this: they took something simple that worked and made it complicated and expensive. Classic corporate move. Now everyone's either jumping ship or just sitting back and watching the show unfold.

Alternative Platforms to Use Now

Since Connectively's heading to the digital graveyard, everyone's scrambling to find their next go-to platform. After testing several platforms myself, here's the real scoop on what's actually working right now:

PressPulse

PressPulse is emerging as the clear frontrunner, and for good reason. What sets it apart is how it's actually learning from Connectively's mistakes. Its AI-powered matching system is spot-on, instead of using AI to spam journalists (which, let's be honest, we're all tired of), they're using it as a gatekeeper and matchmaker.

PressPulse has an AI system that actually understand your expertise. Instead of bombarding you with every remotely related query (hello, old HARO days), you only see opportunities that genuinely match your background. 

Unlike the chaos of other platforms, we have created this exclusive ecosystem where journalists get quality responses instead of spam, experts only see relevant queries, and everyone's time is respected.

Qwoted

Qwoted's journalist network is surprisingly robust - they've managed to attract and retain writers from some major outlets like Bloomberg and Forbes. Their interface is refreshingly straightforward, without trying to be too flashy. 

Although their verification process can be strict, while this strict verification might sound good in theory, it's creating real bottlenecks. Time-sensitive opportunities often pass while experts are still stuck in verification process. 

Sources of Sources

Shankman's new SOS platform (yes, that name is still catching flak) is worth keeping an eye on. Given his track record with HARO, Shankman's built something that refreshingly authentic in an industry drowning in AI-generated noise. The platform has this almost old-school focus on building expert and journalist relationships.

The con is that, although user base, while growing, isn't quite there yet. You might find yourself waiting longer for responses simply because the journalist network is still building.

MuckRack

Muck Rack's been around forever and isn't strictly a pitch platform, but their journalist database and monitoring tools are proving pretty valuable right now. Some agencies are combining it with other platforms for a more comprehensive approach.

How AI Can Help Connect People, Instead of Creating More Spam

You know how everyone's worried about AI spamming up their inbox? Well, there's a whole other side to this story.

Here are five ways AI can help connect people while minimizing the creation of spam:

1. Contextualized Communication

AI's contextual understanding has evolved significantly. These systems now comprehend the deeper meaning behind media queries, distinguishing between different expertise levels and specialties within the same field. When a journalist needs an expert, the AI accurately matches based on genuine qualifications and relevant experience, not just surface-level keyword matches.

2. Timing Optimization

Timing optimization has become remarkably sophisticated. AI platforms can now analyze patterns in journalist engagement and response rates to determine optimal outreach times. This means queries and responses are delivered when they're most likely to receive attention, significantly improving connection rates.

3. Expertise verification capabilities

Modern AI systems can effectively evaluate professional credentials, published work, and industry experience to ensure only qualified experts see relevant opportunities.

4. Dynamic learning from successful connections

Each successful match provides data that refines future recommendations, creating an increasingly accurate matching system. The AI continuously improves its understanding of what makes a valuable connection between journalists and experts.

5. Level up Personalization

Personalization has reached new levels of sophistication. Instead of relying on generic templates, AI now identifies genuine points of professional overlap and shared interests between journalists and experts, facilitating more meaningful introductions.

The real breakthrough here is how AI enhances human connections rather than attempting to replace them. It's about using technology to facilitate better relationships, not automate them.

Conclusion

As we bid farewell to Connectively, it's worth reflecting on what their journey teaches us about the evolving media landscape. While the platform showed early promise in streamlining expert-journalist connections, their shutdown highlights something crucial about our industry - innovation alone isn't enough without sustainable engagement and community building.

Looking back, Connectively tried something different. They jumped into the media-matching game with some pretty innovative ideas. But in today's world, you need more than just clever algorithms - you need to create a space where real conversations happen.

The timing of this shutdown really tells us something about where the industry is heading. Everyone's realizing that while tech can make connections easier, it's the human element that makes them stick.

For everyone who's been using Connectively, this might feel like a setback, but it's also a chance to rethink how we do things. There are plenty of other platforms out there that have learned some hard lessons about what works and what doesn't. The secret isn't just about having the fanciest tech - it's about making connections that actually mean something.

Sure, Connectively is closing its doors, but they've helped push the conversation forward about how we connect in this industry.