The Cure for Zombie Journalists

30 June, 2007 - General Business - 7 Comments

As a 19-year-old entrepreneur, I enjoy my fair share of media coverage. I’ve had a chance to experience the fast paced world of media, from interviews and newspaper articles for my local business supplement, to live radio interviews on county wide BBC radio.

Most of the coverage has been outstanding, and I’ve gained a lot of knowledge along the way. However, my latest exposure didn’t quite go to plan. Here’s the story.

I first contacted the business editor at the newsroom of my local newspaper approximately two months before the published story. Initially I contacted her to see if she would be willing to publish an article I was writing. Publishing articles for your intended market is a fantastic way to position yourself as the expert within your industry.

Better Bang for my Buck!

It took a while for the editor to get back to me, but once she did she explained she doesn’t want any articles. Instead, she offered to do a full blown interview and publish a story about me and my business as the feature story in her daily business supplement. You don’t turn down an offer like that!

I replied within an hour to say I would love to do the interview. We arranged a time, and she arranged to have a photographer come and take a shot of my ugly mug (never, ever send a story to a newspaper without a photo - it’s as good as opening a trash can for the editor and putting a mini basketball net over it.. she shoots… she scores. Your story is in the bin!)

The Interview

I had my interview a few days before the story was published. It went well and she asked me some interesting questions. I had many good answers for her, even when I didn’t actually have an answer. Always have a better answer to a question than “I don’t know,” such as “that’s something my two business partners deal with. My expertise lies in X, Y and Z”. It’s always best to have a good reason to not know something, and perhaps the reporter will allow you to contact him or her later with more information.

One Mistake. Two Mistake. Three Mistake.

Thursday arrived. The article was printed and I saw it on their Web site before I had the actual printed version in my hands. Let’s just say I did well not to throw my laptop out the window.

  • Our company name was spelled wrong.
  • The area I live and work in was spelled wrong
  • They gave the worst definition of Web 2.0 I have ever seen in my life (Did you know Web 2.0 is all about getting your Web site on TV screens rather than on a computer? I didn’t. Not until I read it in this article on Thursday!)
  • They said “Jamie is excited about Web 2.0.” I’m not. Web 2.0 is a buzz word. It’s crazy to say I’m excited about it. I’m excited about some of the technology commonly associated with it, but I’m not crazy about the term or how it is (mis)used.

I immediately called the editor. Frankly, I was so shocked, I wasn’t even able to tell her all her mistakes. I simply told her about the spelling mistake in our company name. She even had the correct spelling in her notes from the interview! When I give the correct spelling in the interview and it is correct in the editor’s notes, I expect it to be correct in the final print. That’s reasonable, right?

Despite the editor saying she would try and get a correction in, I knew it wouldn’t happen (Almost a month later, it’s still not corrected within the online version). Once I was off the phone, I registered the .com and .co.uk domain names of the way it was spelled in the newspaper and then I setup a basic page saying the newspaper spelled the name wrong and the visitors would be redirected to the correct Web site.

That was the best I could do. As much as I wanted to beat everybody in the press office with a frying pan, I was a few miles away and I wasn’t going to waste a good frying pan on that (my fried breakfasts are far too important).

Lesson Learnt!

I guess I learned a lesson the hard way. Journalists want to publish correct information, but pressure and tight deadlines can and will result in a few (or more than a few) mistakes, and I must be proactive to avoid them in the future.

Here is my advice to you, if you find yourself in a position to be interviewed:

  1. Ask the journalist for a set of questions before the interview.
  2. Give the journalist your business card (I can’t believe I didn’t do that this time) as well as any recent press releases you have sent out. You should print these and give them to the interviewer in person. Email will only get lost in the hundreds he or she receives each day.
  3. Ask to see the finished article before it is published. From my experience, editors generally don’t offer to do this, but most editors don’t seem to mind doing it for those people who ask. This will allow you to correct errors (such as the Web 2.0 definition in my interview), before they go to print.
  4. Write notes in advance on everything you want to be included, and make sure you mention it in the interview. Whether it’s the Web site address of your blog, or the word “sausages” that your buddy is going to pay you $10 for if you get it in there, make sure you write it down. When it comes to interview time, you’ll often forget some of the most important parts of your story if you haven’t prepared notes.

PS. I invite you to compare a previous article by the same newspaper (albeit different editor) about me and my business, with the most recent one discussed in this post.

Have you had any negative experiences with journalists? Have you had any positive experiences? How did you deal with those experiences?

This was the first blog post in my “Dealing With The Media” series. Next, I’ll be discussing how to handle live radio interviews.

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Posted on 30 June, 2007 by Jamie Harrop
Filed Under General Business |

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7 Comments»

Comment by Paul Green Subscribed to comments via email
2007-07-02 06:02:00

Some useful tips there Jamie.

Great thinking with registering the “wrong” domain names.

Reply to this comment
Comment by Jamie Harrop
2007-07-02 19:08:57

Thanks Paul.

We only got a few visitors to the “wrong” domain names, but for $15 it was worth being prepared for that best customer that may have come along.

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Comment by Ankit
2007-07-02 19:58:35

Good points - I’ve had a similar issue where there were a lot of mistakes and wrong definitions. When I had an article published, the editor said, “The busines is a server…” and that’s how the whole paper started out. There were plenty of other typos, but it was too late and I never got a chance to read over before publishing, even though I requested to.

Congrats on getting some more media exposure, it’s a nice feeling :)

Reply to this comment
Comment by Jamie Harrop
2007-07-03 20:54:14

The business is a server?! That’s a riot. :lol:

Is the article online, Ankit? I would love to read it.

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Comment by Nick
2007-07-03 13:14:47

I gotta get me one of those web 2.0 TV screens!

Even with the misquotes and spelling mistakes I guess getting your face and name out really never hurts. If mom and pop dry cleaners read the article they won’t know any of the technical terms anyways so you will still look good to them.

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Comment by Jamie Harrop
2007-07-03 20:56:14

Yup, the old quote rings true… “All publicity is good publicity”. :)

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Comment by chrisblogging.com
2007-07-06 19:14:09

Interviews can be tough; there is no doubt about that. And when you are misquoted or wrong info is given, things do not get any easier!

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