By: Zach Crenshaw
Before agreeing to an interview with a reporter, there are four critical questions you should always ask. These questions help you assess whether an interview opportunity is advantageous or potentially adversarial, allowing you to make an informed decision about how to proceed.
1. When and Where Will the Story Publish?
This question provides important information about how quickly the reporter is turning the story and how the outlet plans to prioritize or promote it. There’s a significant difference in journalism between a day-turn story and a months-long investigation. The same is true for a segment on the TODAY show versus a story that goes straight to NBCNews.com. Understanding the timeline and placement helps you gauge the story’s reach and urgency.
2. How Long Will the Story Be?
Word counts and run times reveal the story’s importance in a newsroom. The more words a feature reporter gets, the more time a TV news package gets in a newscast, or the more time a CEO gets on Squawk Box—all are revealing indicators of how prominently your interview will be featured. This insight helps you understand the depth of coverage and how much context will be included.
3. What’s My Role in the Story?
Clarifying your role is essential to understanding how you’ll be positioned. Are you the main voice, or just one perspective among many? Are your competitors or detractors being interviewed? What about former employees or someone who sued you five years ago? You must be clear-eyed about how the journalist plans to position you and your organization.
4. What’s the Topic and the Angle of the Story?
This is the most important question of all. It’s essential to press for both the topic and the angle. If a journalist is doing a negative story, they’ll often share the topic but conceal the angle.
For instance, they might tell a hospital executive that the interview is about how billing practices have evolved in recent years. That’s true, generally speaking, but the angle might be that the reporter has found three single mothers who were charged $100 for saline, and they’re going to focus on that, putting the executive squarely in the hot seat.
Make sure you ask for both. If you don’t get straight answers, that’s a red flag.
Be Prepared, Be Professional
These four questions are critical to ensuring you’re sitting down for an interview that’s advantageous, not adversarial. At the end of the day, it’s about being prepared so you can make an informed decision about whether to jump on the interview opportunity, send over a written statement, or politely decline.
Remember: reporters expect these questions. Preparation isn’t pushy, it’s professional.
