How to prepare for a press interview (and maybe be the perfect interviewee)

I was surprised when I interviewed someone over coffee and he confessed afterwards that he’d been nervous about it.

It hadn’t occurred to me that the experience of being interviewed by me would be a daunting one. I’m not a naturally intimidating person. When disciplining small children, a stern word from me would have them quaking with laughter.

Of course, the fact that I was surprised about this represented a massive failure of empathy on my part.

My interviewee was a man of action who had been through some genuinely scary experiences and who probably had the skills to render me unconscious without putting down his coffee. But I should have remembered that each of us is nervous in situations that somebody else might take in their stride.

Most of my working days include an interview of some form or another and I almost always enjoy them. It’s one of the huge privileges of my job to have conversations with new people, whether it’s a chief executive or a random person I’ve stopped on the street. (Most journalists have had to do that a fair few times.)

If you’re at all intimidated by the prospect of being interviewed by a journalist – or if you just want to know what to expect – a few pointers might help.

What’s the interview for and how long will it take?

A press interview can last anything from five minutes to an hour or more, depending on what the purpose of it is. Hopefully, you’ll be clear on that purpose before it starts.

It might be that you’re being interviewed to add some opinion and colour to a story the journalist is already working on. In that case, you’ll probably only be needed for a few minutes, and it will probably be done on the phone.

Alternatively, the reporter might be seeking your expertise to guide them through a more complex subject, in which case you might be needed for a little longer.

More rarely, you, personally, might be the whole subject of the story. That will probably mean a face-to-face appointment (or an online platform that allows you to see each other’s faces) and could take a while.

What to expect in the interview

A print interview is very different from the broadcast kind. You’re unlikely to be subjected to a Jeremy Paxman-style grilling, where the first question is attention-grabbing and confrontational. The journalist is likely to start off gently and let you set out your perspective.

The reporter might get you to go back, explain things again, expand on parts, put things more simply – all so that he or she has the subject clear in their own mind. On occasions, they might also be trying to encourage you to put something more vividly or give them a sense of how you feel about it.

Most print journalists have been trained in shorthand, so that’s how they will often be getting your quotes. It’s hard to do that without looking at the notes, so eye contact might be broken more often than in a social situation.

You should also be prepared for the conversation to come to a momentary stop sometimes. The reporter is simultaneously listening to you, writing down your words, thinking about their planned questions and reflecting on what you’ve said. And their shorthand might be lagging a few words behind your speech. (I sometimes find myself asking a sort of "holding" question, which perhaps gets the interviewee to recap while I think of where to go next.)

If there is a difficult or sensitive question to be asked, the journalist may well leave it a while, giving both parties a chance to strike up a rapport first. (That doesn’t mean the answer will be way down the story. If this exchange is the most memorable element of the interview, it may still end up at the top of the copy.)

Unless the interview is about a particularly sensitive issue – where you or your business is being criticised or involved in controversy – there’s no need to be too wary. The reporter is after your opinion, your insight – and if you’re the right interviewee, you’re on solid ground there.

What makes the ideal interviewee?

Fortunately, good interviewees are not that rare. Journalists come across them every day and often recommend them to colleagues. If you can speak with conviction and authority, you're most of the way there.

You don't need to be up all night swatting for the interview, but it will probably help to spend a short while reflecting on the main things you want to say, and consider what you might be asked.

Some things the perfect interviewees have in common are:

• They know their material – either through preparing or just being generally well-versed in the subject.
• They have an idea of the message they want to get across. You could consider jotting down one or two key points before the interview to make sure you get them in.
• They don’t stick to a script. Have those talking points handy by all means, but respond to the questions like a human.
• They consider the reader. Both parties in the interview should bear in mind that the most important person – the reader – isn't there in the conversation. We should be both considering what will be meaningful to them.
• They put things simply and vividly. That doesn’t mean any opinion needs to be extreme, or that we can’t accommodate some “ifs” and “buts”, but your views and analysis need to be expressed plainly.
• They don’t lapse into jargon. If you need to bring up some industry terms or buzzwords, keep them to a minimum and explain them. As far as possible, speak in the language of the reader.
• They stay on the point. It can be fun to go down conversational rabbit holes if this is a profile piece about you, and sometimes you can make a longer observation before boiling it down to a short version. But most of the time you’ll want to avoid losing sight of the original point or telling stories that need hundreds of words to relate.
• They tolerate stupid questions. The journalist has to communicate the story to someone who may have little or no knowledge of your subject. They need to check their own understanding, so may ask things that seem obvious, or get you to explain some basic terms.
• They're available for follow-ups. It's very helpful to make yourself available for checks or follow-up questions by phone or email, in case a story moves on or the reporter wants to check on something.

When it goes well, an interview gives the reader something a press release doesn’t always deliver: Personality. The words feel like they were really uttered by a human being, not put together by a committee and subject to a sign-off.

And the concerns of human beings are, of course, what communication is all about.