Interviews – Guidelines

Posted on by Picture This Post Editor

Interviews Step-by-Step Guide 061321

 

  1. Secure interview
    1. Use /adapt appropriate template letter to PR person (or sometimes directly to interviewee)
    2. Use attachments—HOW PTP EMAIL INTERVIEWS UNFOLD and IMAGE SPECS
    3. After 2 business days—send repeat email, submit on website contact form, call, send message via fb, linkedin, Instagram--- etc

 

  1. Research Interviewee (usually 30 min to 2 hours max)
    1. Read all backgrounders sent
    2. Read the interviewee’s website (if available)
    3. Google for additional info

 

Cautionary Note: Do not rely on other journalistic sources for the questions to ask or even assume that what you read is accurate; same for Wikipedia like sources

 

  1. Develop your interview “frame”

 

  1. Construct email interview questions

 

  1. Goal: to bring out a narrative of interest to our readers, consistent with the frame
  2. Repeat questions or ask subset questions with an eye to eliciting details
  3. Ask for anecdotal examples or other wording that encourages longer storytelling type answers
  4. List your questions in order of closest to your frame to most tangential from your frame

 

Cautionary Note:  The wording of questions you ask in the interview will likely change in the editing process to simplify the read.  At this stage you are only concerned about eliciting the essence of the story as you imagine it now. The answers might “re-write” the frame and story.

 

  1. Send questions to Interviewee with request for feedback on when answers/images will be received (template letter)

 

  1. Followup by phone, repeat email, website contact form, Facebook, linked in , Instagram message if no response to when answers will be sent in within 2 business days of your last communication (#5 ) or two days after the date reported as to when the answers will be received.  (Contact editor in chief if no response in one week)

 

  1. Do a pre-layout of your story as soon as images are received (while you wait for their answers or while you wait for edits of your edits)

 

  1. Edit Answers LIGHTLY—ensuring the interviewee controls their narrative (as advertised), but with the READERS in mind

 

  1. Read their answers and confirm that your original frame is still the best one for bringing out the most interesting story
  2. Simplify multi-part questions into a single question that covers all bases of the answers
  3. Juggle content to make it a smoother read – flowing best from the (possibly new) frame
  4. Follow all style guide rules (eg re italics instead of quotation marks etc.) with exception of allowing interviewee to write in sentence fragments-- )
  5. Correspond with interviewee if there is a part you think needs change in order to present them in better light (eg a mis use of terminology on their part)

 

 

  1. Submit Edited version for approval

 

  1. Do Layout

 

  1. Do Social Media

 

  1. Send personal thank you letter (in addition to the automated thank you that goes out when a story is published)

 

 

 

 

 

Interviews Do’s and Don’ts

 

  1. Do followup correspondence and messages per guidelines in a timely manner; Do NOT allow week/s to go by without nailing down if the interview is proceeding

 

  1. Do NOT mimic/ape other interviews you find printed in other publications—seek out a story that matches PICTURE THIS POST content and adds to the GRAVITAS of the interviewee

 

  1. Do NOT assume material you find on the internet is accurate

 

  1. Do NOT quote other publications in your questions to the interviewee; Do quote press releases sent as backgrounders if they are relevant

 

  1. DO follow all style guide RULES

 

  1. Do NOT ask questions that are about your personal interests—DO ask questions with the reader in mind (it’s not about you).

 

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Picture This Post — Email Interviews

Picture This Post editors will edit your interview very lightly, if at all. Please see this as our invitation to you to control your own narrative.

This is how a Picture This Post email interview unfolds:

1. Help us research best questions to ask you

Please send us any written backgrounders or links that you feel help explain your work and story to our team at blmpicturethispost@gmail.com (for Black Lives Matter section interviews) or picturethispostinterviews@gmail.com for any/all others.

2. Send us LOTS of images

Please send as many images as possible. Per our name- we LOVE images.

Please see “IMAGE SPECS Picture This Post” attachment.

3. Initial Interview Questions

A Picture This Post Editor will send you questions that we believe our readers will be especially interested in.

Please skip any that you wish to—no explanation needed.
And/Or, please add both Questions(Q) and Answers(A) as you see fit—for our consideration.

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Note: We may not be able to include all Q/As in our final article, but we will try to. Regardless, we will work as hard as possible to honor your narrative.

4. Edits of Your Answers

Typically, our edits DO involve juggling answers to regroup them into more broadly worded questions. We do this with our readers in mind—hoping to not unwittingly interfere with how you want your story told.

We will also correct any minor typos or similar.

If you would like to review the final manuscript prior to publication please tell us when you email your answers. Please know also that Picture This Post is an online publication and we can quickly make any corrections etc. if you spot a need for such.

5. SharingYourStory

You will receive a note from a Picture This Post Assistant Publisher when your interview is published.

In addition, your interview will be publicized in social media and possibly included in future newsletters.

If you would like the link to your story shared with contacts in your address book, please send a list of names and emails to picturethispostwebmaster@gmail.com

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IMAGE SPECS—
FOR YOUR UPCOMING PROFILE INTERVIEW IN PICTURE THIS POST

Per our name, Picture This Post stories are very image-centric.

Please send us as many images as possible to accompany your interview.

We would especially be interested in any and all images that relate to your answers in the upcoming interview story. **

The specifications for the images that we need are:

-600 pixel widths MINIMUM. We can resize larger images—no problem;
-We use jpg or png formats—please do not send us images embedded in a pdf document; -We can also embed YouTube or Vimeo links—however we cannot use b-roll.

Thank you in advance.

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