Print interviews offer a brilliant opportunity to cover a story in more depth.
You have more time to explain the background and put an issue into context.
And there is often a belief they are easier than broadcast ones – it is something we often hear during our media training courses.
But don’t be fooled.
While you may not find yourself stumbling over your words or feeling the pressure ramped up in a TV studio, print interviews offer pitfalls as well as opportunities.
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Take Amrapali Gan.
The boss of OnlyFans has given a few print interviews recently. And one with The Sunday Times Magazine went spectacularly wrong.
How about this for a headline?
I met the woman who runs OnlyFans. It didn’t go well Sunday Times Magazine
Ouch.
The CEO, it seems, had given the interview as part of her drive to clear up “misconceptions” about the online platform.
An article in The Financial Times recently described it as a “special kind of social media site”.
And that, at least partly, is because OnlyFans has become synonymous with adult content – so I’ve been told.
But those who run it want it to be known as a platform for other forms of content.
Achieving that, you would imagine, involves transparency.
Yet the interview with The Sunday Times Magazine is full of guarded answers that reveal little.
For example, a question about the number of its three million content creators who are not posting adult content was met with, “So, we don’t categorise anyone that’s on the platform.”
Despite stressing the importance of safety, Ms Gan was unable to say how many content moderators she employs.
Asked what percentage of turnover is spent on moderating content, she said: “That’s something that I am personally very passionate about. I’m not going to reveal any figures.”
Which makes readers think, ‘why not’. And it is natural to wonder whether the answer is because the figure may not seem impressive.
Later, there are no comment-style responses to questions about the amendment to the Online Safety Bill going through Parliament and a “fair penalty” for a big-tech boss who breaks online safety laws.
Other questions suggest attempts to avoid awkward questions.
Asked if she regards sex work the same as any other kind of paid employment, Ms Gan said: “So, what’s important to note about the platform is that every creator is sharing content they want to share. And it’s all happening digitally.”
The more you read that response, the more it seems like the answer to a different question.
You may have noticed the response starts with ‘so’. Most of Ms Gan’s answers begin that way.
It is a habit we’ve written about in this media training blog before, particularly in broadcast interviews.
It is distracting and annoys audiences. And it does not come across any better when used at the start of every quote in print.
But there is another issue with it too. It is becoming known as a way spokespeople begin evasive answers when responding to questions they don’t want to answer.
It is something journalist Decca Aitkenhead highlights in her story.
“As anyone who has ever heard a mediocre government minister parroting “So …” on Radio 4’s Today programme will know, this verbal device is seldom deployed in the service of transparency,” she wrote.
I should add, keeping with the transparency theme, she also suggests this is the result of media training.
Our media training delegates and regular blog readers will know we don’t teach people how to be evasive or encourage them to begin responses with filler words.
But let’s get back to the subject at hand, before we are accused of protesting too much.
The answers in this interview are so vague and lacking in detail, it is impossible to see how this approach could have been considered helpful to transparency aims and building a reputation as an “inclusive” platform.
Ms Gan has a degree in public relations and organisational communication, so you would imagine she knows this.
And that leaves you wondering if she thought a magazine interview would be fluffy and lacking difficult questions.
During our media training courses, we stress that print interviews need the same level of preparation and skill as broadcast ones.
If the message you want to get across is that your site is about more than adult content, some statistics and examples that support that are crucial. Without evidence, it is just rhetoric.
And you should expect wider issues that could impact your industry, such as the Online Safety Bill, to be brought into the conversation. It is topical – why would the journalist not ask about it?
Here are a few other tips:
Treat it seriously
Telephone print interviews may not have the glamour of live radio or TV interviews.
But they are not an easy option. And you must prepare properly.
Make sure you know the message you want to get across and carefully consider the difficult questions that could be asked.
Also, do your homework on the reporter and their publication.
Time
Print interviews can take much more time than broadcast ones.
A radio interview can be as little as two minutes.
A television one will typically be a few minutes longer.
Print interviews don’t have the same time constraints. This Sunday Times Magazine interview was an hour.
That’s a long time, and the journalist will need something to show for their efforts – even if it is not the story you were hoping to get across.
If it is a news interview rather than a feature one, try bringing the conversation to an end once you are confident you have got your message across.
Read
Think about what it is you’d like to see yourself saying in the newspaper or magazine. What’s the aim?
Once you are clear on the objective, you can think about the message you want to get across and how you can support it.
If you want your platform to be known as an “inclusive content site”, what evidence can you offer that it is about more than adult content?
Quotable
Whether it’s a news or feature interview - like this one - you need to offer something interesting to the story and help the journalist tell it.
Put messages into your own words and use personal stories and anecdotes to help bring them to life and make your content relatable.
If you don’t have anything interesting to say, what you don’t say – as Ms Gan found out – can become the focus.
Telephone
If the interview takes place on the phone – and many do – don’t use a speakerphone. The sound quality is much poorer, and what you say could be misunderstood.
Similarly, using a landline removes the connection issues that can become a frustration for you and the journalist.
Conflict
Avoid showing frustration at the questions. ‘Trouble’ is a crucial component of what makes something newsworthy.
But it can become the focus of the article and detract from your message.
And, in print, angry comments are often reported without any mention of the provocation that triggered that response.
Even sarcasm, which the audience can detect in the tone of your voice in a broadcast interview, may not come across in print.
Only six tips? We offer plenty more advice to our training delegates ensuring spokespeople make the most of print interviews and don’t end up with “It didn’t go well headlines”.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with more than 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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