{"id":648,"date":"2006-06-30T07:15:37","date_gmt":"2006-06-30T07:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/blog\/?p=648"},"modified":"2025-06-12T14:44:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T14:44:15","slug":"when-a-reporter-calls-heres-what-to-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/marketing\/when-a-reporter-calls-heres-what-to-ask\/","title":{"rendered":"When a reporter calls, here&#8217;s what to ask"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Publicity Hounds spend so much time worrying about their\u00a0pitch&#8212;how long it takes, what it looks like, what it sounds like, and the number of words\u00a0it requires&#8212;that they&#8217;re often unaware of how to react when the journalist makes the first move and calls them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Your first inclination might be to brace yourself for the just see what the s Richard Laermer <a href=\"http:\/\/badpitch.blogspot.com\/2006\/06\/when-reporter-contacts-you.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blogs<\/a> about this at his\u00a0Bad Pitch Blog and says you must get\u00a0 basic information from the reporter before you decide whether you want to proceed with the interview. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;When&#8217;s your deadline?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Is this a round-up story in which my\u00a0competitors will be included, or is it a story only about my\u00a0company?&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here are other questions you can ask:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Can you give me an idea of the angle you&#8217;re taking?&#8221; This is a nice way of asking if the reporter has a preconceived notion about the story, or has an ax to grind.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;How much do you know about this topic?&#8221; If the reporter is dense, you&#8217;ll know it soon enough, and this is your chance to either educate the reporter, or decline the interview.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Who else have you spoken to about this?&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Don&#8217;t be afraid to ask journalists these questions. Most people don&#8217;t. But smart Publicity Hounds do.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Publicity Hounds spend so much time worrying about their\u00a0pitch&#8212;how long it takes, what it looks like, what it sounds like, and the number of words\u00a0it requires&#8212;that they&#8217;re often unaware of how to react when the journalist makes the first move and calls them.\u00a0 Your first inclination might be to brace yourself for the just see\u2026&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/marketing\/when-a-reporter-calls-heres-what-to-ask\/\" class=\"rmlink\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":2,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29],"class_list":{"0":"post-648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-marketing","7":"tag-media-relations","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41202,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions\/41202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}