Face To Face – Media Interviews
Now let’s move from the general to the particular, and look at the various types of interview situations in which you might find yourself.There are three basic situations, and you’d be well advised to try to find out which one you’re in before you start trying to answer questions.
The Positive Interview
This is normally an easy one to handle, and PR-wise it can be quite rewarding. A journalist wants confirmation or more information; you confirm the story and give as much positive information as is relevant and as your press policy permits.
Example 1: You’ve sent out a news release about a new product.
Question: ‘Does it conform to EU safety legislation?’
Answer: ‘Yes, all our equipment does and it’s been approved by countries like the United States as well.’ Nice positive answer – and you’ve grabbed an opportunity to get in a discreet plug for your export effort!
Example 2: You’ve been sending out lots of ‘order’ stories recently.
Question: ‘You seem to be doing well – what’s your financial turnover now?’
Answer: ‘Nice of you to say so. and you’re right! I’m sorry it’s not our policy to talk about actual financial figures, but I can tell you that sales are up by about 30 per cent compared with last year – and the trend’s still upward.’ You’re giving him as factual a statement as you can within corporate media policy guidelines, and subtly prompting further interest about the reasons for this continuing success.
The Defensive Interview
This is the situation where a journalist has got hold of a negative story, phones you, and asks you to confirm it and/ or give him more details.
A negative or defensive interview can quickly change from a mildly awkward situation into a PR disaster if it’s not handled well. Fortunately for most of us, really defensive interviews are quite rare birds, but be very aware that they can happen and be ready to deal with them smoothly.
Example 1: A journalist phones: ‘There’s a rumour going around that your company’s hit a bad patch and you’re going to make a lot of people redundant. Is it true?’
Example 2: Journalist: ‘George, my wife was in Tesbury’s yesterday looking for your Premier Frozen Fishcakes, and they told her they’d stopped selling them. Has Tesbury’s chucked you out?’
Your first reaction to the call is important. If you really and honestly have absolutely no such plans for redundancies, or there’s a perfectly good commercial reason why Tesbury’s have withdrawn your Premier Fishcakes (like, they’re moving upmarket and are going to stock your new Organic SuperFishcakes instead), fine – no problem. Say so (if that’s OK with Tesbury’s, of course).
However, if you do have redundancy plans, or Tesbury’s have given you the big heave-ho in favour of a competitor, you may experience an instant urge to fudge or delay the issue by saying something like ‘Who told you that?’ (or worse still, ‘That doesn’t sound right’), usually said in a somewhat indignant tone of voice. Resist that urge! It will only encourage the journo to think that he’s on to something, and he won’t reveal his sources to you anyway.
If you, as the corporate media contact person, have been forewarned of a possible problem (like the two examples above), you will be able to prepare an answer in advance. So get all departments primed to contact you as soon as they know of any possible negative situation, so that you aren’t caught on the hop.
However, let’s imagine the worst happens – you are taken by surprise. Don’t panic or bluster. Try to gain thinking time. If appropriate, you might say that you haven’t heard about this personally, but you’ll look into it right away and get back to him, and what’s his phone number and his deadline? Then, as quickly as possible, you get together with everyone concerned in the affair and get all the facts, if you haven’t got them already. Then very carefully prepare and agree a statement, get back to the journalist, read out the statement to him, and stick to it through thick and thin, no more and no less. ‘I’m sorry. but I can’t say anything further at this stage’ is a useful standby in case of further questioning.
When you have to confirm a negative situation, always try to make a positive point with it. This may not be easy, but please do try. For example, if you’re having to get rid of people, you may have to confirm some big numbers but try (if appropriate) to emphasise that you’ll be relying mainly on natural wastage, and any necessary redundancies will be kept to a minimum, etc.
And finally... Some PR folk have actually been known to try to kill a potentially negative story before it comes out in the press by contacting journalists and denying it in advance.
Deliberately drawing attention to a negative rumour is like shooting yourself in the foot. Example: ‘If you’ve heard that stupid story going around that we’re making lots of people redundant, forget it – it’s definitely not true.’ After your call a bright journalist will think, ‘Well, well, that’s interesting. I haven’t heard the story, but there’s no smoke without fire’, so he starts doing a little digging...