How to Handle Media Interviews With Confidence and Finesse

Whether you’re working on a pitch or an article, sound bites from experts can really ramp up the credibility of your writing. But expert interviews can be intimidating, especially if you’re introverted like me or new to the game. When I did my first phone interview three years ago, I was a hot mess: stuttering over my questions, scrambling to hold my phone up to my ear while taking notes and not letting the conversation run its natural course. Long after the article ran, I was still receiving copious promotional emails from the expert’s pushy PR representative. Here are a few tips to help you handle your interviews with confidence and finesse.

Find and contact the right experts.

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In the age of Internet and social media, experts aren’t too hard to find. But when you’re working on a tight deadline, scheduling an interview with a high-profile expert can be tough. Susan Atteberry Smith, longtime freelance writer and professor at Drury University, finds experts primarily through public information officers — who are different from PR agents in that they’re more focused on providing information and less focused on marketing.

Atteberry Smith also recommends contacting organizations directly. For example, she says, “The American Heart Association sometimes will have an expert on the board___ and those nonprofit organizations also [have] public information people who will put you in touch with an expert.”

Personally, I have found reliable resources at Help a Reporter Out (helpareporter.com), a free service that connects writers to experts in various fields. For more on finding experts for your pieces, also check out Mediabistro’s 6 Surefire Ways to Find Sources in the Digital Age.

Develop strong questions.

Getting the information you need isn’t just about firing off questions 1, 2 and 3 and hoping for the best. The first step to a successful interview is having background knowledge. Freelance writer Lindsay Cross says, “Look at their websites, social media, published works___ research some counterpoints and other experts who work in the same field. The best way to get over any nerves you might have is to be prepared.”

Another way to obtain information about an expert, if it’s someone well known, is to read archival articles written on the person. Atteberry Smith says a Google search may be enough, but “if you have access to a college or university database, you can also find a lot of different publications and you can search to see whether there are articles about that person. Or you can access the library.”

Rachel Heston-Davis, freelance writer, suggests requesting a PR kit from an expert’s public relations person. However, if you don’t have access to a PR kit, Heston-Davis recommends you “think up some general questions ahead of time and during the interview pay really close attention to what they’re telling you.” She adds, “Honestly, you have to get practice at generating questions on the spot, at noticing something they said that might be of interest, just probing at it.”

Cross says when she develops questions in advance, she considers her readership and the purpose of her article. She asks: “What will they expect to get out of the piece? What kinds of questions or problems might they have that pushed them to read my piece?”

Communicate honestly.

You won’t always converse with people who share the same opinions and tastes as you. Unless you’re assigned an undercover piece, it’s best to be clear about your article and its angle. Cross says, “I once interviewed a parenting expert whose philosophy I had some serious problems with. I asked him very pointed questions, but when I questioned his answers personally, I didn’t communicate it with him. I think I was afraid of coming off as rude and argumentative. Then he was a little surprised at how critical my write-up was. I never misquoted him or took him out of context, but I should have made sure that my piece didn’t blind-side him.”

Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification, either. If your expert uses an unfamiliar term or draws an analogy that doesn’t make sense, ask her to expound. If you don’t understand something your expert says, your readership may not, either — and your job as a writer is often to boil down complicated or abstract ideas into practical information.

Heston-Davis admits she learned this after trial and error. She emphasizes the importance of asking an expert to reiterate because “you will not be able to figure something out from context later.” She adds that having misinformation in your article, or a lack of information, reflects poorly on both you as a writer and your interviewed expert. Getting clarification in an interview “really is better than the [expert] looking at your article and feeling like you didn’t understand what you’re writing about.”

Cross has another point on honest communication, which is to not let your interview become nothing but an expert’s promotional pitch. “Most experts agree to be interviewed because they’re selling something___ Just because they are an ‘expert’ doesn’t mean you have to take every word they say as gospel and it doesn’t mean that you can’t question them. Try to approach the conversation like a thoughtful, inquisitive consumer.”

Choose your media for conversation wisely.

Should you do a phone, email or in-person interview? First, adhere to your editor’s guidelines: Some editors prefer email, while others prefer live or phone interviews for their more spontaneous cadence. The style of interview also depends on the kind of piece you’re writing. If you’re working on a profile of a notable person, it’s best to meet with him face-to-face to get an overall impression of his personality, quirks and mannerisms. But for an information-driven piece, a phone interview should suffice.

Smith says, “an email interview would be the last resort___ conversations have an authenticity to them and a spontaneity that you just can’t get in an email dialogue.” Of course, if a PR person demands you conduct an email interview and that’s the only way you’ll get your information by deadline, sometimes email is necessary — but all the same rules about honesty and communication apply. Respond to the email with follow-up questions if something is unclear.

Use a mix of tech and old-fashioned note taking.

Davis and Smith are both low-tech when it comes to note taking, which works in their favor. In Davis’ experience, she would use an audio recorder in “certain situations, but there were other times, if I was at a community festival, let’s say, and I’m running around getting quotes from lots of different people___ I felt like the recorder and my camera and my notebook were too much to take care of at once. If you’re uncomfortable with the technology, or it’s ultimately getting in the way of your ability to quickly multitask, then at that point it’s almost not worth it.”

Smith uses tape recorders as backup, but has developed her own style of shorthand over the years. “I have discovered that I prefer taking notes by hand___ I pay more attention to what’s being said, I have the nuances a little better than when I’m recording. The other reason is practical, because if you record interviews then you have to transcribe them.”

And a word of caution: Any time you’re trying a new form of technology, test it out first. I avoided disaster by doing this recently. I had downloaded a free conversation recording app for my Android and made a test call to two different people, one local and one out of town. On both, it recorded my voice crystal-clearly, but the person on the other line was nearly inaudible. Because I had a phone interview scheduled later that day, I opted for putting my phone on speakerphone and recording the conversation with my video camera. It wasn’t optimal, but it did the trick.

Transcribe your conversations.

Having a written copy of your recorded expert interviews will serve you in the long run. In fact, some editors require this. You have a few options for transcription. You can do it manually, which may take around four times as long as the duration of the interview (for example, a 20-minute conversation recently took me about an hour and a half to transcribe). If you don’t have the time, try using a free or paid transcription service.

For a free option, try Express Scribe Transcription Software or use the Dragon Dictation app for iPad and iPhone. The downfall of using a free service is that you will often have to go back in and edit words and add punctuation. If you don’t want to worry about this, one of our Mediabistro editors recommends the Rev Voice Recorder app, which accurately and quickly transcribes interviews for $1 a minute. Before you write off the idea of paying for a transcription service, stop and think about how much you’re worth. For example, if it takes you two hours to transcribe a 50-minute interview, and you value your time at $50/hr, you’d be better off paying the $50 to have the interview transcribed than to waste $100 of your time.

It’s all about the conversation.

Smith sums it up well: “The best interviews are great conversations.” You may worry, especially when you’re working on deadline, that you won’t get all the information you need out of an interview. And while it’s important to get the facts, Smith suggests you allow the interview to run a natural course, but “steer the interview, gently steer it, so you get your questions answered. It’s a delicate balance.” This combination of assertion and social grace comes with practice, but in my experience many of the same skills you use in regular communication with friends and coworkers translate into good interviewing skills. Be respectful, be a good listener, have a sense of humor. Do these things, and you will walk away from your interview with both solid information and the sense of joy that comes from having a great conversation.

Amanda Layman Low is a freelance writer and artist. Contact her on Twitter @AmandaLaymanLow.