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Below are excerpts from the Print Interviews chapter of Winning with the News Media 2005 Edition Copyright © 2005, 2001, 1999, 1996 By Clarence Jones Interviews-Print No, You
Can’t Talk Compared to broadcasting, print interviews can be a very lengthy process. To compete with broadcasting’s immediacy, newspapers and magazines go overboard with detail. Intimate, minute trivia is showcased. It is common for print stories to tell us what brand of cigarette the interviewee smokes and just how the smoke is inhaled. The designer of the dress. How many times the phone rang during lunch, and who called. Everything that was ordered. Whether it was eaten. The Luxury of Time Print reporters have a luxury that few broadcast reporters ever have — the luxury of time. Lots of time to research and write the story. Writers at newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post may work on one feature story for weeks. Investigative projects can take more than a year. Another reason for this kind of trivia is an effort to draw pictures with words. Many newspaper editors are still not interested in pictures. They are word people. They simply don’t understand the impact of pictures. When they have good photos, many of them don’t know how to display them to their best advantage. In television, the reporter and photographer work closely as a team. Without pictures, the reporter has no story. Every word the TV reporter writes must have a picture to go with it. The reporter and photographer map out ahead just what they’ll need to illustrate the story. The pictures often tell us more than the words. Separate Words, Pictures In newspapers, the reporter and photographer generally work separately. Even at a breaking news story like a plane crash or building collapse, they go to the scene in separate cars and have little contact with each other. They bring their work to an editor independently. It is the editor’s task to merge the words and pictures. Print reporters’ obsession with trivia can be a real pain. They may want to just hang around and watch everything you do for several days. They’ll want to talk to your spouse, your children, your boss, your employees, your parents and your psychiatrist. Drawing the Boundaries You may have to decide just how much time and privacy you’re willing to give up. Early in your contact with the reporter, you should diplomatically draw some boundaries. Celebrities often do this to protect their families. Remember — barring a door often whets the appetite of a reporter to get inside. But knowing very early how the reporter views the assignment — the talent and experience the reporter brings to the story — can help you make that decision. Print is More Tenacious Print reporters are often much more tenacious than broadcast reporters. The luxury of time permits them to doggedly stick with a rumor, trying to prove it’s true. Broadcast reporters will usually be pulled off and sent to another story if they don’t find what they’re looking for quickly. But in-depth reporting is an endangered species. The profit margins at TV stations and newspapers are not nearly what they used to be. Owners are almost universally looking for ways to cut operating costs and restore their profit margins. Newsrooms are shorthanded. When people leave, the job is often left vacant for a long time. Maybe permanently. So there’s a real emphasis on pushing every employee to be as productive as possible. Too often, that rules out any serious investigative reporting or extensive research. Experts With a Specialty Reporters at larger newspapers are generally better educated and more experienced than their broadcast competition. They are experts who develop a specialty. Police reporters do nothing but crime and law enforcement stories. Reporters on the school beat may know more about schools than members of the School Board. The school beat is a full-time job at some newspapers. School Board members usually serve part-time. When you know a print reporter will be interviewing you as part of a major assignment, it saves time if you can supply written material before the interview. Collect data that will educate the reporter. Supply history and statistics. Arrange other interviews with staff who are technicians. When the reporter is ready to do your interview, this can save a lot of time. ● ● ●
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