Every TV News Reporter Should Know the Three Rules of a Great Interview – FREE READ

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By Paul Greeley,
817-578-6324, Paul@NewsBlues.com

Josh Helmuth, news anchor and co-managing editor of the morning news on KRDO, the News-Press & Gazette’s ABC affiliate in Colorado Springs, believes there’s an art to great interviewing.

And he posted his thoughts on social media.

“Part of that art consists of asking the right questions,” Helmuth says. “There are 3 principles every reporter needs to consider when asking someone questions: they need to be open, lean and neutral.”

1. OPEN questions don’t allow a “yes” or “no” response. They force someone to give context pivotal to obtaining a good quote or soundbite.

2. Questions should be LEAN. Don’t over-load your question with a statement – or worse, multiple questions. If you give someone too much it gives them the opportunity to dodge your question.

3. Questions should be NEUTRAL. Eliminate any trigger words that can elicit a response making you look bias or, at the very least, like a distraction.

Helmuth credits John Sawatsky, a former  investigative reporter, for his tips on interviewing.

Here are some excerpts from a 2012 article on ESPN, “John Sawatsky is Highly Questionable”, in which Sawatsky reveals his technique for asking great questions in an interview.

“There are no rules in the interview,” he said during a recent visit to his office at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn. “But there is a set of principles, and they are universal and they are timeless. If you follow them, you get good results. If you violate them, you pay a price.”

“The interview is not a conversation,” Sawatsky says, adding that the goal “is to get, not to give. What’s the goal of conversation? It’s to exchange — it’s as much about giving as it is about getting. I tell people, ‘When you’re giving, you should be giving to our audience.’ “