Marketing Tips: Talking to the Press By Mike Wallace In a media-dominated world, there is a subconscious fear that one morning a host of reporters will be camped out on your lawn (and as it was once said in a “Shoe” cartoon, you know it’s going to be a bad day when Mike Wallace’s camera crew is waiting at your front door). And we know talking to a reporter is not like having a conversation with the next door neighbor.  One, we usually like our neighbors. Two, even the nosiest of neighbors doesn’t print our business on the front page of the newspaper. Not to fret. With a little guidance (and sometimes a lot of restraint), we can use journalistic practices to our advantage. A few helpful pointers: Designate a limited number of people to talk to the press: It would be difficult to train every one of your club members how to respond to reporters. So designate key people to handle the press, and give those precious few “titles” (i.e., president, project coordinator, historian, head coach, head instructor, etc.). Then teach everyone to recite this line when a reporter calls on the phone: “I’d love to do an interview, but I’m not the right person. You need to call our club president. Here’s his number.” The good news is that over time, reporters will learn to call the right people. Ask your own questions first: Before the reporter gets the first question out of his mouth, you should ask some questions of your own, starting with, “What information are you looking for?” One, this can save time—for both you and the reporter. Two, it gives you time to assess the reporter’s intent and formulate answers. Also, we often forget that reporters handle a wide range of subjects, and therefore may have little knowledge about our subject, marksmanship and firearm safety training. This gives us the advantage of knowledge that we can use to direct and control the interview. It’s OK to respond to the reporter, “That’s really not the right question. What you want is this…” Answer the questions you want to answer: From the largest city to the smallest town, the content of newspapers is consistent—most news articles include quotes from “sources” (from government officials to the citizen on the street). Seldom do newspapers, however, print the reporters’ questions.  So why do we worry about what the reporter asks?  Most politicians have this process down pat—a reporter will ask one question, the politician will say “I’m glad you asked. That’s such an important question” and then talk about something else. People who are not a part of the politician-reporter exchange scratch their heads—“He didn’t answer the question.” Well, he did answer a question, just not the one the reporter asked. A middle school student shoots up a school a thousand miles away, and the local newspaper sends a reporter to the coach of the school rifle team to do an interview. The reporter asks, “Isn’t this proof that we shouldn’t be teaching young people to use guns?” The media-savvy coach replies, “You know, the young men and women in our program are such wonderfully responsible people." Let the people who are not part of the interview scratch their heads. Answer the question you want to answer. You can only be quoted on what you say: In talking to reporters, less is actually more—the less you say, the less you can be quoted on, the more likely the things you did say (and that you want to end up in print) will be quoted.  This brings us to the concept as well of the “sound byte.” In both newspaper and television news, reporters work with a limited amount of space. You could, for example, talk to a television news reporter for 20 minutes on tape. In most cases, that reporter is only going to use 15 to 30 seconds of the interview, and therefore will be looking for short quote that summarizes the story. Be prepared—have a statement of one or two succinct sentences that say what you want to get across. People can get carried away in interviews, talking to reporters as they would a best friend. Don’t get caught having to claim that your words were “taken out of context.” Keep it short. Say only what you need to say.