How to Conduct a Newspaper Interview
Whether you're conducting an interview for a school newspaper, or a city paper, there are a few tricks to keep in mind as you conduct the interview. An effective reporter will keep the conversation flowing smoothly and allow the interviewee time to respond without interruption. Asking the right kinds of questions and prompting the interviewee will lead to a successful interview and newspaper article.
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Instructions
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Start the interview by reminding the person why the interview is happening. Explain to him when it will run in the newspaper and why he is important to talk to about a particular subject. Validate his importance to the story.
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Get the basic facts out of the way. Ask for the complete spelling of her name, job title and place of business, if applicable. Never assume how to spell names and always ask for the complete name of the business. If a business card is available, get one. This can also be saved to use as a contact reference later.
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Start with the most important questions that you must have answered, in case your interview is cut short. Tackle the who, what, when, where, why and how of the story before getting into personal anecdotes. This way you will also have a foundation to work from when asking the more creative questions. For example, if you know the interviewee is married, you can use that later to learn about how they met, which might be a fun way to transition into talking about his family life in the article.
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Ask open ended questions. After they answer, follow up with a why question, to get more detail or another perspective on that issue. Avoid questions that yield a yes or no answer. Do research on the interviewee before the interview. Be ready to verify your findings. Never assume it is correct until the interviewee confirms it for you.
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Ask if she has any questions or if there is anything you didn't talk about that might be important for readers to know at the end of the interview. This often opens doors to an inside scoop, a look at future developments or a funny story that she wasn't sure if she should share or not.
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Tips & Warnings
Take handwritten and recorded note during a newspaper interview. Keep all notes for a few weeks after the newspaper article has been published. If there are questions about the article, you will be able to reference your notes for answers.
