The AI PR Hack: Get Backlinks from 33,000 Journalists

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Feb 19, 2026

Brett Farmiloe, founder of Featured and operator of Help A Reporter Out, demos an AI tool that maps press releases to the right journalists. He shows how the feature searches HARO’s 33,000+ reporter directory, matches by angle and past articles, and surfaces targeted pitch recommendations. The conversation focuses on timing, quality over volume, AI filters journalists use, and practical pitching workflows.

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INSIGHT

AI Matches Stories To Reporters

Featured's 'Find Journalists' connects promotable news to reporters by analyzing queries and articles.
It uses an AI chat interface to surface relevant journalists from HARO's dataset so you don't manually monitor everything.

ADVICE

Pitch By Perspective, Not Broad Topics

Prompt the tool with a specific perspective or angle to find journalists who share that view.
Review the journalist's recent articles before pitching to tailor your message to their beat.

ADVICE

Always Edit AI Pitches Heavily

Use AI-generated pitches as a starting template but always heavily edit before sending.
Research the journalist and personalize the pitch to increase reply rates.

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E960: Brett Farmiloe returns to share his screen, breaking down a new AI feature from Featured and Help A Reporter Out (HARO) that helps you find and pitch the exact journalists who are most likely to cover your story.

Instead of blasting press releases to massive media lists or relying on expensive distribution platforms, this tool analyzes journalist data, past articles, and active queries to help you identify the right reporter for your specific angle.

We go deep into how it works, when it works best, and how to actually use it without damaging your credibility.

What we cover: - How the AI matches your story or press release with relevant journalists - How Featured leverages the Help A Reporter Out (HARO) network of 33,000+ journalists - How to search for reporters based on specific perspectives or coverage angles - How to paste in a press release URL (or raw text) and get targeted pitch recommendations - Why most PR efforts fail because they prioritize volume over quality - The 2-3 hour HARO response window and whether being first actually matters - When being the last response can work in your favor - How journalists use AI detection and filtering tools to evaluate submissions - Why you should never copy-paste AI-generated pitches without editing - How to build long-term media relationships instead of spraying mass emails

We also discuss: - Whether this is more effective than traditional press release distribution services like PR Newswire - How journalists filter AI-written responses - What the algorithm looks for when surfacing expert sources - How to think about credentials vs. relevance when responding to media requests - Why better targeting leads to better backlinks

If you care about backlinks, earned media, and getting covered without wasting time, this episode breaks down a practical workflow you can implement immediately.

Brett is the founder of Featured and owner of Help A Reporter Out. We discuss how the journalist directory works, how open queries are surfaced, and how AI is being used on both the PR and journalist side of the equation.

This is a tactical episode focused on execution, not theory.

⭐️ Try it - https://featured.com/ ⭐️ Brett Farmiloe on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettfarmiloe/

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00:00 Brett Featured Founder & HARO Owner 00:39 What "Find Journalists" Does 02:10 Live Demo: Pulling Journalists & Recent Articles 03:36 Finding Reporters by a Specific Point of View 05:45 Auto-Generated Pitch Emails 09:44 Super Effective Press Release Distribution 12:10 Stop Spraying Pitches 13:57 Finding Open & Past HARO Queries 16:25 Timing & Tactics 18:52 AI Sorting, AI-Detection Filters, One-Click Replies 20:44 What Gets Picked by Journalists 23:03 What's Next + Closing

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Edward Sturm on Grokipedia - https://grokipedia.com/page/Edward_Sturm

#searchengineoptimization #linkbuilding #publicrelations #backlinks