Timely TV News Interview Advice (from Another Time)

[by Howard Fencl] On Halloween, I will travel to Columbus to attend a TV newsroom reunion for WBNS-TV reporters, producers, videographers, engineers and news managers. It promises to be a horrifying, creaky affair – no costumes, just the unwelcome mask of old age necessitating name tags with our headshots from the 1980s in the event we have morphed into something unrecognizable.

Much has changed in TV news since the ’80s, but surprisingly, best practices for working with the TV news media have not. In the flurry of yellow-tinged Polaroids we scanned and posted on our reunion Facebook group page, someone posted this gem, written by our News Director, Larry Maisel. It’s a one-pager our newsroom provided to local candidates running in the 1984 elections, the year Ronald Reagan was elected to a second term. I thought it was a good bit of frippery to hand out at our check-in table until I re-read the piece, which has the feel of a proto-blog post.

It turns out that Mr. Maisel’s advice, after 31 years, is sage – sometimes brutally frank – advice that still applies today. I’ll see Larry tomorrow (for the first time in 31 years!) and I’m going to tell him that. And I’m going to tell him I shared his advice with all of you. He’ll no doubt laugh and suggest you share it with candidates in your community who will be scrambling to get in the last word in TV interviews over the next few days. And, there are nuggets of advice in here that work for anyone reaching out to the media. Step back in time to put your best foot forward!

CANDIDATE CHECKLIST FOR TV

BY Larry Maisel

Vice President/News, WBNS-TV, 1984

1. Brevity is the watchword of television news. Whether it is written or spoken, keep it short.
2. Broadcast news eats up a lot of material in a short time. Make releases frequent. They won’t all make newscasts – in fact, most won’t – but keep newsrooms up-to-date. Include campaign appearance agenda.
3. Remember that you are not the most important news item on any given day, even though you might think you are. All the other candidates think they are. But newspeople don’t always think like candidates. Your message is only one of thousands newsrooms get every day.
4. Space your major statements, news conferences and speeches. It’s better to have three major things during a campaign, than to begin to sound like the little boy crying “wolf.”
5. Time your news conferences. Know when newscast deadlines are. Forget trying to hold them during newscasts to get live Rapidcam coverage. It won’t work. Do time them to reach the most people, which means at a time when the largest number of reporters is likely to be available. You’ll reach the greatest number in late morning. After four in the afternoon, you tend to lose radio. Hold it in a room big enough for cameras, but not in a huge one.
6. Hold a news conference only when you have something to say. Make it something major. Don’t have more than one person speaking.
7. Speeches have a better chance of coverage if you send a copy in advance. Short of that, don’t keep the topic a secret.
8. Early in the campaign, make certain the assignment editor has names and phone numbers for you, your campaign manager and others who can speak for the campaign. Include home numbers. You gave up privacy when you ran for office. Make most of your contacts by news release. Save phone calls for the big items. An assignment editor handles several hundred calls a day. Don’t add to that load unless it’s major.
9. If we want a comment on something, have one. “No comment” has a bad connotation. It gives the appearance you are trying to hide something even if you aren’t.
10. Keep interview answers short. Well under a minute. Being concise is being understood. Being understood is basic.
11. Never stare at the camera. Look at the interviewer.
12. Never, never grab the microphone.