By Greg Hazley
Vocus has acquired journalist lead service HARO (Help A Reporter Out), a two-year-old company founded by PR pro and social media consultant Peter Shankman.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Shankman |
HARO, a free, advertising-supported competitor to PR Newswire’s premium ProfNet, was started as a Facebook group forwarding source and interview requests from journalists to PR pros and transitioned to a stand-alone service. It counts 30,000 reporters and bloggers and more than 100,000 users.
Shankman told O’Dwyer’s that Vocus is HARO’s biggest advertiser, by far, and talks about a combination started in earnest in December.
“The majority of HARO users are small businesses,” he said. “Either they can’t afford a PR firm or don’t know how to do PR. When Vocus heard that, they said ‘That’s what we do.’”
Shankman said he had been talking to other potential suitors for some time but noted Vocus made the most sense for his company. “They just got it,” he said.
Rick Rudman, president and CEO of Vocus, called the free HARO service a “perfect on-ramp” to Vocus’ premium PR software.
Shankman, who is closely linked to the HARO brand, is joining Vocus “to help drive continued innovation for HARO and other social media products,” Vocus said.
Shankman said he signed a one-year contract but plans to stay with Vocus. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I know what HARO can be and I want to grow it.”
HARO and Vocus have both eyed international expansion as key to the companies’ respective growth. In April, Vocus, which has a London office, acquired PR services companies in France and China.
Vocus said the deal is not expected to have a material impact on Vocus’ financial results for Q2 or full year 2010.
|