This post is by Andrew D. Gilman, CEO of CommCore Consulting Group, a privately held specialty-communications firm serving businesses, government agencies and nonprofit organizations worldwide. Gilman is co-author of “Get to the Point.”
The five W’s are one of the basic tenets of journalistic training. Reporters are taught that good reporting starts with asking the five W’s: who, what, why, where and when. The answers to the five W’s provide base-line information necessary for reporting a factual story.
That’s fine for a reporter, but it doesn’t satisfy a business leader’s goal: to take advantage of a media interview to reach the reader, listener or viewer with his or her message. After all, the reason to agree to a discussion with a reporter is ultimately to influence the audience about your product, service or idea.
In media training, we counsel clients to prepare information to answer a reporter’s five W’s. But that’s table stakes — a reactive and informative response to answering a reporter’s basic questions. That brings us to the sixth W: your website, an underutilized media-relations resource that contains much more information than you can ever communicate in an interview.
Think of it this way: Most print publications and broadcast or cable news programs also publish an online edition. When was the last time you read an article online that didn’t have a link? Sure, during an interview, a reporter should ask you what website contains more information for the reader, but you shouldn’t count on that. We think a good interview should also include information you want to share directly with the audience, not only answers the five W’s that are in an article or a news clip.
The sixth W could also stand for WIIFM, or “What’s in It for Me,” which is the one of the reader’s questions, along with “So What and Who Cares?”
In essence, most business leaders should agree to an interview because it’s an opportunity for a two-way exchange. A reporter wants information that will fill in a story for readers or viewers; certainly, a leader should go in with several points that help the reporter. But he or she should also offer up a website to communicate directly with readers, listeners or viewers who want to know more than what the interview provides.
Thinking about the sixth W can also be a cue for a leader to think about other information that can be prepared in advance to provide to a reporter. The five W’s can be answered quickly and often with a fact sheet, and the faster you can cover them, the more time you will have to discuss examples, stories and other proof that make the article come alive.
The critical point is that leaders prepare for media interviews the way they prepare for presentations. What’s my agenda? What’s the goal of this meeting? What do I want as an outcome? When you think about the sixth W, it helps you exert more control.
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"I KEEP six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who."
Rudyard Kipling
Thanks for the literary reference. What poem?
As a long time reporter, I can really appreciate this post. I am now doing a tremendous amount of consulting work in 'story telling' for businesses, and knowing what YOUR story is in advance of the interview is always key. I encourage anyone being interviewed to focus on just one or two key points they want to get across and then, regardless of the question, bring the answer back to YOUR story, the points YOU want to get across. The reporter needs a quote. Give him/her several to chose from — but all with the same underlying message. Obviously the media-savvy politicians have mastered this.
Thx for the reminder that managing the media is an art form to be practiced!
Amy Parmenter
The ParmFarm-dot-com
Amy,
Agree on all the points. I view the interaction as a pretty symbiotic one. The problem with politicians is that they often fail to even acknowledge the questions before delivering messages.
You make some great points here Andrew. Preparation before an interview is so important, and I strongly agree that the message to be conveyed can be restated but needs to be targeted and clear — both for the reader and for the journalist. And also, it should be mentioned that the reporter may ask you any question, but you don't necessarily have to answer it! Being prepared for what you DON'T want to say is just as important.
Nancy,
It's okay not to answer the specific question but I'm a big believer that for credibility sake, you should at least acknowledge the issue or question.
As a business leader and new Amazon best selling co-author of Counter-Attack, Business Strategies for Explosive Growth in the New Economy, I practiced these fine points during a live radio interview recently. The reporter appreciated me sharing additional information with his listeners since it added value to them… Thank you for the excellent article! -Alex Rodriguez, http://www.exitstrategyadvisors.net
[...] via Going beyond the 5 W’s in your next media appearance | SmartBlog on Leadership. [...]
[...] communications expert recently wrote an interesting column in SmartBlog on Leadership entitled “Going beyond the 5 W’s in your next media appearance.” He advised business leaders to prepare for media interviews by not only practicing their [...]