Guide to Giving an Interview

For the most part of my adult life, I earned my living advising business people about corporate law.  Regularly, I was asked to give my thoughts on what to say to journalists.  99% of the time, the answer was, "NO COMMENTS"!

This certainly makes sense in a private transaction environment, where you are not under any obligations to disclose information.  But now, with the NBO I am a member of a team of people working for the benefit of all Canadians and music enthusiasts. This means that Ido have to comment now.

Here is my 2 cents worth of advise when you do need to give an interview:

1. Prepare yourself.  Use paper and a pen (or your computer).  Write down what you want to say and what you do not want to say.  Make your notes easy to read.

2. If you can, chose the journalists you will be talking to.  You may feel more comfortable talking to certain persons.  Go for those.

3. Limit the amount of messages you want to pass.  If you have too many, you will confuse everyone.

4. Trust your instinct.  If you feel you can trust the journalist, give him/her background.  If required, ask the interviewer to go off the record to explain the context.  This way, you will have a better chance of having a thorough understanding of your message... by all.

5. Never use an interview as a springboard to personally get spotlighted.  Journalism is not PR and trying to self promote may just turn against you.

It is all a question of common sense.  Anyone can do it.

Oh, before I forget, I would like to have your comments on this...