I’ve said this before and continue to believe it. The PR profession under-appreciates interviewing expertise. It starts in college. Try to find a curriculum for mass communications or PR that offers a class on interviewing. Good luck. Every journalism program in the country tackles the art of the interview like this one from the University …more
The reason PR fails at storytelling often has nothing to do with understanding the makings of a good story or writing expertise. Instead, the root cause can lie in the interviewing process for sourcing the content. If you don’t get this upfront step right — pull out the type of content that the outside world …more
Writing alone does not guarantee terrific storytelling. You need to able to dig out that contrarian twist, anecdote or perhaps even failure that sets the stage for later success. Which brings us to the interview. Tom McHale, our director of client services based in Beijing, tackles this very subject — emphasizing scientific sources — drawing …more
I’m convinced the craft of interviewing is one of the most undervalued skills in corporate storytelling. Consider PR’s version of what came first, the chicken or the egg. Would you rather enjoy an excellent relationship with a journalist, but be stuck with lame content? Or would you rather have man-bites-dog content, but no relationship with the journalist? I’ll take the …more
I met with Peter Lewis over a cup of joe yesterday morning to discuss a storytelling workshop that we’ll be tag-teaming on soon. We went through the exercise of comparing notes on the storytelling front. Peter, who now teaches at Stanford’s J school, offered a journalist’s perspective reflecting stints at The New York Times and Fortune. My input shaped from toiling in …more
