How to Do the Interview: Policies, Strategies & Techniques

How to get quoted, featured, interviewed, and published in the media

RICH CONTENT

Read media relations articles by David M. Freedman

Visit Law Marketing Bibliography: reviews of books on legal marketing and related subjects

Visit Newsletter Strategy Session: everything for publishers of client newsletters

How to Do the Interview:
Policies, Strategies, and Techniques

A comprehensive guide to being interviewed by reporters – and impressing your audiences.

By David M. Freedman and Paula Levis Suita
About the Authors View table of contents

$34.95 for PDF edition

Whether in print or on the air, here's how audiences react to a strong performance by a lawyer in a media interview:

“This lawyer explains things in a way that I can understand. I appreciate that.”

“Hmm, she makes a good point. I hadn’t looked at it that way before.”

“He doesn’t skirt around the issue with a bunch of fancy legal double-talk – he owns up to his mistakes, and that makes him honorable.”

“That lawyer is good-natured and down to earth – seems like someone I would like to do business with.”

“That lawyer is clever – that’s the kind of lawyer I want representing me.”

“I’m going to photocopy this article and send it to my brother.”

How to Do the Interview, the second handbook in The GET GOOD PRESS Series for Lawyers, is a comprehensive guide to performing well in interviews with the press.

The handbook's authors have both won prestigious, national awards for media relations work they did for law firms. They draw on their combined 28 years of experience in public relations and 30 years in journalism — plus the experiences of lawyers, law marketers, and media trainers around the country — to give you guidance on all aspects of doing interviews, from creating a firm media relations policy to answering difficult questions in the glare of the media spotlight—and how to graciously avoid the spotlight when appropriate.

Table of Contents

Part 1 — Overcoming media performance anxiety

Part 2 — Write a media relations policy with the following provisions:

Who may talk to the press
What you may disclose to the press
What you must not disclose to the press (including extra-judicial speech)
Relationships with reporters
Preparing for an interview
Interviewing guidelines (responding to questions)
Alternatives to “no comment”
On the record vs. off the record

Part 3 — Strategy: responding to media requests for an interview

First, avoid conflicts of interest
Weigh the benefits vs. risks of doing the interview
Research the media outlet and/or reporter
Interview logistics (when, where, who, how, what, etc.)
Setting ground rules with the interviewer

Part 4 – Preparing for the interview

Set goals: provide accurate information, explain your position, create favorable impression
Sound bits and message points
Practice answering tough questions
Practice explaining complex information in simple terms

Part 5 — Interviewing techniques, tactics, and tips

Relaxing
Listening to questions
Answering questions: language
Answering questions: style and form
Answering questions: substance
Tips for broadcast interviews
After the interview
Media training

Part 6 — Correcting reporters’ mistakes

Part 7 — Bad news: responding to the media in a crisis

Author bios and acknowledgements

Get Good Press Home

Customer Service:
847-204-6848 (voice)
e-mail

TESTIMONIALS

"The GET GOOD PRESS handbooks offer up-to-the-minute best practices on various aspects of PR and dealing with the press, as well as illuminating examples and immediately employable strategies and tips. They are comprehensive, easy to read, and no-nonsense.”

— Sydney Iglitzen, Public Relations Manager, Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, Chicago; and Public Relations Committee Chair, Legal Marketing Association-Chicago

* * * *

"These are extraordinarily well written and designed booklets that can truly aid practicing attorneys in developing a media presence."

— Michael Steinberg, attorney in solo practice and NASD arbitrator, Glencoe, Illinois

* * * *

"I found your books invaluable. I learned so much. They really tell you how to get it done."

— Audra Callanan, Director of Marketing, Hamilton Brook Smith & Reynolds, Concord, Massachusetts

* * * *

"The GET GOOD PRESS Series for Lawyers is blessedly practical and impressively market-wise. David Freedman and Paula Levis Suita understand full well why lawyers have such a pressing need to master the dos and don’ts of public communications, and they provide a real arsenal of best practices that will directly benefit both legal practitioners and their clients. Bravo!"

— Richard S. Levick, Esq., President & CEO, Levick Strategic Communications, LLC, Washington, DC

* * * *

“Any lawyer who wants to learn how to work the media to get clients should read Freedman and Suita’s extremely practical handbooks.”

—Joey Asher, Esq., author of Selling and Communication Skills for Lawyers, Atlanta.

CONTACT

David M. Freedman, Publisher
390 Flora Place, Highland Park, Illinois 60035
Voice: 847-204-6848 | Fax: 847-713-4833
e-mail