It seems that a lot of people are willing to “help a reporter out.” Peter Shankman’s free service, Helpareporter.com (HARO), celebrated its 10,000th member on June 18, 2008, and quickly surpassed the milestone. Now with more than 12,000 members, the online service, which connects reporters and publicists, has grown aggressively and has had a tangible effect on the news put in front of readers and viewers.

According to an e-mail sent to HARO members the day Shankman’s service crossed the five-digit threshold, he told his community of publicists, “On March 20th, 2008, I sent out the first HARO [message] via email … It was a query from the Chicago Tribune, and it went to 491 people.” The HARO message sent the day Shankman celebrated 10,000 contained more than 15 queries from reporters multiple countries and went to members in more than 45 countries.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of this service is that it hit 10,000 members in exactly 90 days. Shankman mused in his HARO e-mail, “Not too bad, huh?” Of course, even more impressive than the size of the community or the speed at which it has grown is what it accomplishes.

HARO takes a unique approach to online media. Instead of finding new ways to put existing news in front of readers, it seeks to make finding news easier, ultimately rescuing stories from the cutting room floor. This website gives reporters a chance to find the sources needed to build an article from scratch or find the killer quote that an otherwise dull piece is missing. Instead of spending days or weeks coping with cold-calling and crossed fingers, reporters can broadcast their needs to a community of thousands of PR professionals, entrepreneurs and other media-hungry citizens who have something to say. HARO began as a Facebook group rather than a website. The service quickly outgrew the social networking platform, and Shankman moved it to a dedicated website.

Ultimately, Shankman credits the members with making HARO a success. In celebrating this major milestone, Shankman wrote to HARO’s members, “Thank you, every single one of you. Thank you for answering the queries, thank you for your emails, thanks for the notes of encouragement, thanks for telling your friends.” As a member of HARO, on both the reporter and respondent sides, I have seen the value of this service first-hand. HARO is effective. With 10,000 safely behind him, Shankman is already en route to 11,000, though it seems clear that he has much larger numbers in mind.