Beware Secondary News Interview Postings

Posted: October 28th, 2008 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Media Relations Opinion | No Comments

I was talking to a PR friend of mine today who has been a friend since we both worked in local radio news. He contacted me to give me “heads up” about a new practice by a local radio station. I won’t mention his name or the name of the station, but he was recently interviewed by the station for a story about his employer. The interview was over the telephone and was completely on the record. He assumed his answers would be cut into soundbites and used in the station’s twice hourly newscasts, and he assumed correctly.

My friend was bothered, however, to find that the entire interview was *also* posted on the station’s website as part of their “news on demand” offering. He was happy for the extra exposure and felt he sounded okay in the long form version (and he did sound just fine) but the problem was that he was never told about that secondary use.

When you’re being interviewed by a radio or TV station, the interview will either be broadcast in its entirety or cut into soundbites that will be used in newscasts. A good interviewee knows that different types of interviews should be handled differently. When being interviewed for a long form piece, you can feel free to elaborate more. Additionally, when you’re being interviewed for a soundbite interview, you may feel free to cough, clear your throat, or get a drink of water in between questions.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see TV stations starting to do this very same thing, if they aren’t already in some markets. Therefore, this is just one more thing interviewees need to ask about ahead of time. It’s also one more reason that, whenever you’re around the media, you should act as if the camera and microphone are on.