how to write an interview article for a magazine

How to write an interview article for a magazine

If someone asked me what is my favorite type of article to read, it would be interview articles for sure. There is just something so personal and engaging to them that tickles my curiosity buds while still providing a fair amount of interesting information. It can be quite challenging to write this type of article, so here are some tips and tricks that will help you in your quest on how to write an interview article for a magazine. And not just any but the perfect one.

Before we get to the practical tips, make sure you have a reliable laptop for writers , since it will save you a lot of trouble down the road. If you are more of a visual learner, there’s a video you can watch at the end of this article. Let’s dive in!

Things to keep in mind when writing an interview article

1. choose your questions wisely.

This is probably one of the most important steps in the process of writing an interview article as it all starts with asking the right questions to the interviewee. First, you will need to do a lot of research work and collect as much information as you can on the person you are going to interview. You can use tools like Evernote and OneNote to keep track of all the information so you can refer back to them easily down the road. You can either read their biography, previous interviews or read about their current projects, interests and the list can go on. This will not only give you a solid background of the interviewee but will also make you aware of what has already been written, so that you can put a spotlight on some interesting and fresh information. No one wants to read the same facts about someone over and over again, this is why it’s best to find new topics to tackle. And speaking about topics, try to choose a focus topic for the interview. That being said, it’s not a rule you need to take literally, but it’s recommended you stick with a main topic so that you’re not all over the place with your questions. Choose an aspect of the interviewees life that is both remarkable and fits the interests of the reader. Or seek a certain topic worth discussing and develop some questions around it. You can always add a few extra questions still related to the main topic, but with a twist, maybe something unexpected that requires a more spontaneous answer to spice things up for the reader.

Tip: Select questions for interview that best fit your approach. Avoid typical interview questions and ask questions that are intriguing. For example, instead of asking, “How did you achieve your success in tennis?” ask, “They call you the ‘next Federer’ … what three qualities do you think you share with the Swiss tennis player?”

2. Structure of the article

Once you have narrowed down the questions you wish to address and have conducted the interview ( here you can find a comprehensive guide on how to interview someone for an article ), the next step is to actually write the article. Here is where you have endless options and can get your creative juices to flow in terms of how you wish to structure the article. If there isn’t a specific code you need to follow, I would say that these days there isn’t one winning rule. Most writers feel the need to post the picture, questions and answers in a logical sequence. Which is not bad, but then again chances are this makes for a rather boring interview article.

Before anything else, you need to choose the perspective from which you wish to write the article. There are roughly three perspectives you can use:

• Literal : write down the questions, followed by the literal/ only slightly rephrased answers (the classic Q and A);
• Narrative : describe what the interviewee says in third person;
• Hybrid : leave out the questions and combine narrative statements with direct quotes.

You can stick with one of the first two perspectives for the entire article, or you can use the hybrid one depending on the dynamic and tone you want to give to the article.

Also, make sure you have a strong start and ending as these are the pillars of your structure. Choose the most provocative questions and answers to be featured at the beginning and at the end so that this way you keep the interest of the reader from start to finish. Moreover, you can insert some of the main answers as quotes to break the article and make it less boring.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the actual interview might be full of half sentences, unspoken words, or sudden changes of topic. When doing your after-call work reviewing video and notes of your conversation, you’ll inevitably realize something: to make the interview readable, you’ll have to rephrase most sentences. And when it comes to rephrasing, there’s a simple rule of thumb:

Rephrase as much as you like, but don’t change the message.

Nonetheless, try and make it attractive . Starting from the title and ending with the last answer, always keep in mind this: “How can I put things so that it’s appealing for the reader?” Look for the most interesting stuff and reorder the questions of the interview if needed so that you give readers the feeling that they have just read the story of a conversation and not a cold sharp interview. Add suggestive photos, insert quotes and let your emotions guide you. Remember, you’re in complete control at this point!

Tip: Try to give the interview article some sort of narrative or structure, without making it too linear and logical. In the end, just ask yourself if it’s something you’d enjoy reading.

3. Magazine article interview examples to get inspired from

Finding it hard to be creative? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. Luckily, if you’re stuck in a rut, there are plenty of magazine interview article examples on the Internet to draw inspiration from. I’ve selected a few of the ones that I have enjoyed reading, and remember, even if you’re probably never going to interview Adele or Brad Pitt, articles like this can plant an idea in your mind or awaken your creative buds. It can be anything from the title, the layout of the interview article, to the questions, the perspective from which it is written and so on. Serena Williams’ interview for Vogue , as well as Adele’s one for Vanity Fair are some impressive articles that somehow manage to bring these big stars closer to the public by sharing some candid moments and information with the readers. Brad Pitt’s interview for GQ magazine is rather an interesting one since it’s a roller coaster of perspectives, questions, emotions and quite artistic pictures that altogether reveal a different side of the actor.

However, if these interview articles are a bit too much, on our blog you can find some interviews to start with, like this one with Debbie Millman or this one featuring Jacob Cass . You’re really just one click away from a plethora of interview articles.

Tip: Don’t copy other interview articles, but use them rather as an inspiration and add the missing pieces in order to make your own greater. This is especially important when outsourcing interviews to contractors on popular freelance websites , as freelancers usually use standard content templates on many different projects due to ease of use and efficiency.

Writing an interview article can be quite challenging and overwhelming at times, but as long as you keep in mind the above-mentioned tips, you should be on a good path. And remember, there isn’t a one rule applies to all. You can make it as fun or as serious as you want. Just ask yourself at the end if it’s something you’d really enjoy reading.

27 Comments

cool reading! I agree. The most popular articles and most shared are the interview ones by far. Maybe Flipsnack could do a series of Interview articles with relevant people in the industry or most engaged or relevant Flipsnack users. Good job with this article! ;)

Hey, we’re glad you enjoyed the article! That’s a very good suggestion and definitely something we’re planing on doing this year! :)

Thanks for this post. It helped me write my first interview for my blog which received great feedback!

Thank you for your feedback, Angela! Glad to know that it was helpful!:)

REEEEEEEEEEE

very helpful

It is very helpful. This interview article is very interesting. I enjoyed reading.

Thank you for the feedback! Glad to know you’ve enjoyed it!

This is a great article. Thank you.

Thank you for your kind words!

Diana, Very informative article. I’m a novice writer, and I might be landing an article for a local publication on a demo lady at our local grocery store. I got the idea after years of stopping for a sample of cheese, or whatever, and making light conversation. One day, a small boy came up to her and handed a piece of candy, telling her he loved her. She replied, “I love you too, Eli.” She confided in me that one regular customer suffered from severe depression and told Sally that no matter what kind of day she was having, she knew she could come to the store, find Sally with her smile, and feel much better about the day and herself. I want to write about this food sample lady!! Any fun questions I could ask her? Any idea as to how I could direct this interview, focusing on one or two main ideas? Thanks!

Thank you for your kind words, Tonya and for taking the time to share this story with us. First thing that came to my mind after reading this is what Ellen DeGeneres always emphasizes in her show and not only, which is the importance of being kind one to another. I think you can focus your article on the idea that no matter where you are and what job you have (to oneself it might seem an insignificant one) you still have this power to have an impact on other people’s lives. Big or small, one can make a change in this world by practicing kindness on an everyday basis. And Sally is a very good representation of that. Some interesting questions I think you could ask her are Who or what inspires her in her day-to-day life? Or if she has any memory of an unexpected kind gesture she has received from someone? And if so, what impact did that have on her life? Depending on the tone you want to set for the article, you can ask questions in a more familiar way, such as “I’ve seen you light up the day for many customers that walk into the grocery store. Where do you draw your inspiration from to practice kindness on a regular basis?” These are just a few that came to my mind. Here’s a cool article about kindness, perhaps it helps you. Just trust your instinct and I’m sure you’ll do just fine :)

what up dawg this is a good article.

This is such a well-written article! Love the structure and the way you communicate with the reader. Good tips, will definitely use them.

Thank you, Rhea for your kind words! Glad you enjoyed it!

Someone help me my teacher is making me read this article… HELP!!!

This was a great read! I am struggling with how I can format an interview-magazine- like a story for my school. How should I start it? I have my questions listed, just wondering on how I can start it? Any tips?

Hi Regina! Thank you for your kind feedback. I’d say that once you have all the questions ready, just start writing it. Make a short introduction so that you don’t just dive in directly into the interview and from there on just do whatever feels natural. Don’t overthink! I’m sure it will turn out just great! :)

Do you have sample online interview responses? Meaning, you sent the one being interviewed a list of questions via email.

Hi Sara! We had a series of interviews on our blog and I’ve sent the questions via email to the interviewees and received their answers. You can check the final result and read some of the interviews on our blog. Here is one of them . Hope this helps! :)

This was such a useful article and thank you! I will definitely be referring to it over the next week while I complete my English assignment. Do you have any tips on how I could start my Interview? I have all the content, but I am unsure of what the best way to start it would be. Thank you again for the fantastic article.

Thank you, Holly, for your kind words! Glad you found it useful! Well, it depends on the type of interview. I’d say you could start by making a short introduction about the person you’re interviewing/ the topic (if there is a certain one). And from there on just go ahead and ask the questions. I’m sure you’ll do a great job! Best of luck! :)

Hi Diana, Thank you for this post. I will be starting a new section on my blog where I will interview Women in Business. I plan to write the articles interview style so this has been very helpful. I plan to write it Literal style. Thank you again Raheela

Hi Raheela! I’m glad you found it useful. Thank you for your kind feedback and good luck with your new interviews section!

Hey! Thank you so much for the article. I am using it in class with my students :)

thank you, it gonna help me for my exam

Just watched your excellent video and your blogpost. Such great ideas and tips. Plus examples of real interviews! Very generous of you and I’m feeling excited about completing my assignment. Thank you very much!

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Knowledge Base > Magazines > How To Write a Remarkable Interview Article for a Magazine

How To Write a Remarkable Interview Article for a Magazine

It is hard to imagine a good magazine without interviews – it allows you to learn more about a person, their thoughts, and experiences. Almost every magazine is in a business where there are interesting people you can learn from.

The key to writing a good interview article is careful planning and execution. Many master interviewers know how to cover themselves and get the most out of an interviewee. No matter who the subject is – an expert, a well-known celebrity, or an English teacher who’s a mentor for the young – the goal is always the same: to interest readers and show them the unique personality and point of view of the person being interviewed.

If you want to create a magazine with essays, interview articles, descriptions, and news pieces, you might consider publishing it using Publuu’s online digital magazine maker. Thanks to our interactive functions you can make your interviews stand out and be enriched by multimedia content.

In this article, we will look in detail at how to write an interview article that will engage readers and grab their attention. We will talk about what an interview is and how to write one. We’ll also give you tips and tricks to make your work better and edit the entire interview.

What is an interview article?

A magazine interview article is a type of media piece that presents different perspectives and viewpoints through a conversation with an expert or celebrity. An interview can be a transcript of the dialogue, whether as a whole or just excerpts and direct quotes from the subject. The text of the interview is based on information based on your research, gathered from one or more conversations with relevant people or experts in a particular field.

For professionals, interview articles serve to give readers a deeper understanding of critical topics through direct contact with the expert’s words. For example, the exact details of some new software can be explained by its developer. Casual readers can learn more about the private lives and ideas of their celebrity idols or just interesting people.

A well-crafted interview article engages the reader, drawing them in as if they were being interviewed. To achieve this, the article must capture the reader’s attention from the very beginning. It is important to choose an interviewee who has a wide range of knowledge and can provide specific information on the topic under discussion.

How do you structure an interview article?

Once you have completed the actual interview process and have it recorded on the recording device, you can organize the information you have gathered.

Start with an introduction that grabs the reader’s attention and explains the topic and the purpose of the interview article. Explain who is your interviewee and what’s their background research and expertise. You need to be aware that your readers might be not as informed as the person you’re interviewing, so simplify things a little bit. Be sure to add relevant statistics, facts, and event descriptions that make the facts in the interview article clearer and engage readers interested in the conversation!

When planning an interview article, be sure to present interview questions in a logical sequence, including all the specific questions and ones that delve deeper into the topic. Make sure that you do your research and don’t be afraid to ask the interviewee for clarification.

When writing down your subject’s answers, you can paraphrase and summarize responses, as long as you preserve the gist and all the relevant details. Remember to present the interview for authorization. Highlight crucial points and don’t be afraid to use quotes and images to highlight your article.

Designing the appearance of your interview article is also an important part of the interviewing process. You need to choose a good layout that will showcase direct quotes, the point of the entire conversation, and show the insight of the interviewee. If you’re new to the desktop publishing process, you can visit our list of 10 best free magazine fonts and learn how to use typeface to your reader’s attention.

How to write an interview article in 8 simple steps

Choose your subject.

Choosing the right topic for the interview essay sets the tone for the whole thing. You should interview someone who knows a lot about the topic you want to learn more about, has a lot of experience in it, or has a unique point of view on the subject. For example, if you’re writing an interview about the future of sustainable energy, you might choose a well-known environmental scientist who has done groundbreaking research in the field. Or you might choose a successful business owner who has established a thriving green energy company with fresh ideas and inventions!

Do background research

Before you conduct an interview, you need to study a lot about the topic you want to cover. It is also good to know the person’s past, his achievements, and what he is good at. Based on this, you can formulate good questions during the interview.

Review documents, articles, and previous interviews with the interviewee to learn more about her work and previous job achievement. Make sure you are up to date on events, trends, and issues related to the subject of the article.

Come up with creative questions

To get good, interesting answers from your interviewee, you need to come up with original and thought-provoking questions. When asking specific questions, think about what makes your topic unique and what your readers are interested in. Try to ask open-ended questions that will prompt the person you are talking to to give thoughtful, detailed answers. For example, to a renewable energy expert, you might ask, “What new technologies do you think will have the biggest impact on the renewable energy industry in the next ten years?” – this is a good start to the topic so you can move on and discuss individual new inventions.

Plan your interview

Before you conduct an interview, it is important to plan how it will go and what will be said. Choose whether the interview will be in person, by phone, or by video call. Set a date and time that suits both you and the person you want to talk to and make note of any time constraints. Prepare any tools, such as voice recorders or note-taking tools, that you will need to make a complete and accurate record of the conversation. You can also prepare a list of questions that the interviewee will answer by email if the article needs to be edited.

Interview your subject

Talking about the subject is the most important part of your article. During the interview, it’s important to get to know the person and make them feel at ease so they can give open and honest answers. Listen carefully to what the interviewee is saying, and don’t be afraid to ask additional questions if you want to learn more or gain more clarity. Remember that you are interviewing on behalf of your readers. Take notes and ask more questions about things that seem interesting or need more detail.

Transcript your interview

After the interview, it is important to write down the speech so that you have an accurate record of what the person said. You can type up the chat manually or use tools that will do it for you automatically – but in this case, be sure to review the whole thing ii correct any mistakes. The process involves reviewing the transcript, writing down what was said, and making any corrections you need for clarity and accuracy. Don’t be afraid to edit and simplify certain statements so that the reader can read what is meant.

Determine the format of your article

Consider how best to show the interview article. It may be a simple question-and-answer style, in which the questions and answers are written word for word in third-person style, but this is not the only option. You can combine the interview with a narrative or article that presents a certain issue – for example, you can discuss each source of sustainable energy, and then add a comment from your interviewee. Or apply the narrative style, in which the subject’s answers are woven into the story. Choose a format that fits the tone and goals of your article and the tastes and expectations of the people you want to read.

Create an article draft

Now that you have everything you need, you can start plotting your interview. Start by arranging the information in a logical order, prepare an introduction ii present your interviewee’s character. After the interview, you can add your analysis and interpretation of the interview and additional information that will be relevant to the reader.

Revise, review, and polish

Once you have completed the first draft of the text, you need to keep working on it. Cut out any content that is repetitive or not needed, and make sure that each line contributes something to the text as a whole. You need to be your editor. Review the text to make it clearer and more logical, to make sure the information makes sense and that the respondent’s answers are shown correctly. Also, look for language and spelling errors and make any necessary changes to make the text easy to read. Only then can you show the text to the editor.

An interview is an effective way for readers to learn about different ideas and views by talking to experts or well-known people. A well-written interview requires careful planning and preparation, from getting the reader’s attention to organizing the information and asking questions that will make the reader think. With the help of Publuu’s online digital magazine creation tool, multimedia elements can be added to interviews to make them even more interesting and enjoyable to watch.

With a rough draft, rewriting, and polishing of the text and feedback from the editor, the final piece will be clear, logical, and interesting to readers. By combining the art of storytelling with the insights gained from interviews, you can inspire readers to learn more about a topic and look at it from different points of view. You may be also interested in: Best Newspaper Fonts for Your Headlines Online Magazine Maker – 7 Simple Tips!

Jakub Osiejewski is an experienced freelance writer and editor. He has written for various publications, including magazines, newspapers and websites. He is also a skilled layout graphic designer and knows exactly how to create visually appealing and informative PDFs and flipbooks!

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• Writing Tips

How to Write Up an Interview-Based Article

• 5-minute read
• 26th May 2021

You’ve interviewed someone and had it transcribed. But what happens next? How do you turn a raw interview transcript into an article people will want to read? There are five key steps to writing up an interview-based article:

• Review the transcript and plan what you want to include.
• Decide how you’re going to structure your article.
• Write up the interview, editing for clarity and concision as appropriate.
• Consider whether reorganizing parts of the interview will help it make sense.
• Proofread your finished interview article to ensure it is error free.

For more on how to write up an interview-based article, read on below.

1. Review the Transcript

A transcript is a written, word-for-word copy of what was said in an interview. This provides the starting point for any interview-based article. Before you start writing, then, you will want to review your transcript. This will help you identify:

• What to include and what to leave out when you write up the interview.
• Key details or recurring themes that you want to highlight in your article.
• Any details that need checking with your subject before publication.

It is a good idea to listen to the recorded interview again, too. Hearing the interviewee’s voice will help you capture the tone of their responses. If you haven’t yet transcribed your interview, you can use an audio-to-text transcription tool .

2. Decide How to Structure Your Article

There are two common ways of structuring an interview-based article. One is a literal question-and-answer format, where each question is presented in turn, with the subject’s answers following. For example:

What made you approach writing you latest book in this way? I wanted to play with narrative forms and decided to experiment. To be honest, I was still prepared to scrap the whole idea and start again, though!

Alternatively, you can use a narrative form. This is where you describe what happened during the interview, using quotes to relay what the subject said, but giving extra detail about what they do, the surroundings, and even your own thoughts and feelings as the interviewer (if appropriate):

Taylor shrugs when asked about the writing style of her next, saying she “wanted to play with narrative forms and decided to experiment,” though she “was still prepared to scrap the whole idea and start again” if she had to.

You can even use a hybrid of the two, framing a question-and-answer piece with narrative sections or your own thoughts at the beginning and end.

3. Edit for Clarity and Concision

When we speak, we often use more words than necessary. Sentences become garbled. We use all sorts of linguistic fillers and crutch words . Sometimes we lose confidence in what we say and trail off. And none of this makes for a great read!

As a result, most interview-based articles will be edited for clarity and concision. This might involve making changes along the following lines, for instance:

Original So, um, I was going to start writing…when I started writing the book, I just knuckled down and worked really hard for two months, basically.

Find this useful?

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Edited When I started writing the book, I worked really hard for two months.

The second version is much clearer and easier to read, picking out the key parts of the original to communicate the same thought more effectively.

It’s important to be careful when editing a transcript, though. You won’t want to accidentally twist the subject’s words or misrepresent them, so keep changes minimal where possible and make sure to preserve the meaning of the original.

If you need to rephrase something more thoroughly for clarity, moreover, you may want to check that the interviewee is okay with any changes you’ve made.

Always check your style guide or publisher’s instructions, too, as some are quite restrictive regarding the changes you can make. AP style , for example, suggests only making very minor changes to quotations (e.g., cutting out “umms” and “aahs”).

4. Consider Reorganizing Parts of the Transcript

Interviews can go in unexpected directions. The interviewee might go off on tangents. Or the same topic might come up at different points. To make sure your interview article reads smoothly, then, you might need to reorganize slightly.

For example, perhaps your subject speaks about their early years at the start of an interview, but slips in an extra childhood anecdote later on in a context where it doesn’t fit. Or perhaps you are thinking of cutting part of a response but want to keep an insightful statement that would work elsewhere in the article.

In these cases, it is often fine to move things around as long as the change of context doesn’t misrepresent what your subject has said. However, this is another case where you may need to get the interviewee’s approval for any changes.

5. Proofread Your Interview Article

Whether you are publishing an article yourself or submitting it for publication, always proofread your finished interview to make sure it is clear and error free. You should also check you haven’t changed the meaning of anything your subject said.

You could even use a proofreading service at this stage. Our expert editors are always available, so learn more about our article proofreading service and our transcript proofreading service today.

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How to write an interview article: A step-by-step guide

Writing an interview article correctly is essential for capturing the essence of the interviewee's viewpoints, experiences, and insights. The development of a comprehensive and engaging narrative from the interviewee's comments requires careful preparation, skillful questioning, and a strong storytelling ability.

In the following guide, we’ll discuss how to write an interview article and walk you through the entire process step-by-step.

A detailed tutorial of writing an article

Writing an article requires both creative and technical expertise in order to present facts, concepts, or viewpoints in a clear and interesting manner. It also requires the writers to follow a few essential procedures, regardless of whether it's for a newspaper, blog, magazine, or academic publication.

These steps help in organising thoughts, ensuring clarity, and engaging your target audience effectively.

Selecting a topic: Pick a topic that interests, corresponds to, and is relevant to your audience.

Research: Compile facts, figures, and viewpoints to create a solid article base.

Drafting an outline: Organise your writing to guarantee that the ideas flow naturally.

Writing the introduction: Create a captivating start that establishes the article's tone and explains its goal.

Developing the body: Provide information, examples, and analysis to support your points.

Conclusion: Summarise the main points and provide a closing thought or call to action.

Editing and revising: Edit your work to improve its grammatical correctness, consistency, style, and clarity.

Citation of sources: Give due credit to the information's original sources.

When writing an article that is reliable, engaging, and informative all at once, every step counts.

Getting started with the interview article writing process

Getting started with an interview article can feel a bit like being a detective – you're building a narrative, one answer at a time. Writing an interview article requires understanding of the format and making full use of the audio resources.

Moving forward, we'll outline how to turn your interviews from a straightforward discussion into an engaging, polished piece. How to write an article based on an interview is quite different from how a general article is written. We'll look at research and preparation strategies, examine interview article structure, and provide advice on how to conduct the actual interview.

These tips will assist you in how to write an interview article, regardless of your level of experience as a journalist or as an interviewer.

Understanding the interview article format

The structure of an interview article is crucial for effectively conveying the interviewee's voice and story. Important components of this format consist of:

Introduction: Introduce the interviewee, giving context about their background and why they are a subject of interest.

Segment the article: The article should be divided into sections based on the themes or subjects discussed in the interview. This aids in the logical arrangement of the content.

Formatting the Q&A section: Presenting the questions and answers in a clear manner. You may either paraphrase this for clarity or use a direct Q&A style.

Quotations: Use direct quotes to make an impression and to show the interviewee's character and voice.

Conclusion: Recap the most important learnings or conclusions from the conversation.

Research and preparation

Choosing the appropriate interviewee is essential. Select a person who can offer useful insight and is associated with the subject. To create thoughtful and interesting questions for the interview, thoroughly investigate the topic and the interviewee's background before the meeting.

Here’s a general guide to prepare for an interview to get started with the article:

• Raise unrestricted questions to get in-depth answers.
• Combine factual queries with questions that generate personal narratives or viewpoints.
• To ensure that the conversation continues, prepare more questions than you think you'll want to ask.

If you’re going for a journalistic interview, then you can read more about it here .

The interview process

A good interview takes planning as well as flexibility. There are certain things you should make sure to do and a few things you should be avoiding. We’ve listed down a few basics of those for you to consider.

Advice on interview strategies:

• Establish a welcoming atmosphere for the interviewee.
• Engage in active listening and pursue interesting topics.
• Be kind and considerate of the interviewee's comfort level when asking questions.

Common errors to avoid:

• Steer clear of biassed or leading questions.
• Avoid staying in a predetermined direction
• Stay quiet during the interviewee's speech.

To expedite your interview analysis stage post interviewing, you can employ transcription tools. Learn how to transcribe an interview so that you can start the structuring and writing without having to listen to the audio repeatedly for analysis.

The complete guide to structuring and writing an interview article

Have you ever wondered what makes some interview articles stand out, compelling you to read every word, while others barely hold your attention? In this section, we'll explore the art of structuring and writing an interview article that not only informs but also captivates.

If you’re still wondering how to write an article based on an interview then we’ve got more guidelines up ahead.

How to structure an interview article

The way your interview article is organised may have a big impact on how readers interact with it. An article with better readability should contain:

• Compelling introduction: A captivating beginning should grab the reader's attention from the first. Give background information on the person being interviewed as well as the interview's setting. Set the stage for what’s coming.
• Body passages: Arrange the article's body according to a theme or time period. Every segment needs to concentrate on an individual aspect of the interviewee's answers or a distinct subject covered throughout the conversation.
• Conclusion: Conclude the article by repeating the main ideas and perhaps offering any reflections on the wider takeaways or new perspectives from the interview.

Crafting an engaging article

To maintain readers' interest:

• Use quotations wisely: Include direct quotes in your writing to give it personality and authenticity. Quotes may accentuate important ideas and provide a personal touch.
• Change the sentence form: To keep the reader interested, alternate between brief, snappy sentences and longer, more detailed ones.
• Follow the red thread: Ensure that your content follows a narrative flow that leads the reader from one idea to the next.
• Add personality: Adding a little personality or a distinct voice might make the piece more relatable and interesting, depending on the readership and the topic matter.

Editing and proofreading

In order to make sure your work is error-free, clear, and precise, editing and proofreading are essential. Here are some steps you can take to make sure your writing is error-free:

Examine the larger picture while editing for content. Does the article make sense? Are there any parts that are off-topic or require greater clarification?

Make sure your tone is constant and your phrases are understandable. Look for technical terms or jargon that might mislead readers.

When proofreading, pay attention to punctuation, grammar, and spelling mistakes. It's usually preferable to do this after setting aside some time to read the material again so you can approach it objectively.

Remember that a well-proofread and edited article raises your reputation as a writer in addition to making it easier to read.

Read examples of interview-based articles

Now that we’ve covered how to interview someone and how to write an interview article, it’s important that you skim through a few sample articles to get a better idea of how things should go about.

If you wish to delve more into the art of writing interview articles, you can do so by browsing through these samples . Here, you can gain valuable insights and inspirations on how to write an interview article which involves capturing the essence of the interviews in your writing.

Discover Good Tape’s transcription software for journalists

Having a good transcription service to convert your audio interviews into written documents makes work 10x times faster. You can spend more time analysing and improving the overall quality of your article rather than on listening to the recordings on loop. This is where Good Tape comes to your aid.

It’s simple to use and has a shorter turnaround time which makes it the most effective choice. Here’s how you can work your way around it.

• Upload your file: The first step in the process is to upload the file you need to transcribe. Make sure the file is complete and has all the information you require.

• Select the language: Good Tape has a number of options when it comes to choosing the language of transcription. Select the one you want. You can also choose the “auto-detect” option for the system to automatically identify the language in the audio.

• Transcribe the text: Once the file is uploaded and the language is chosen, proceed further by clicking the “transcribe” button. Your audio transcription process starts here.

• To wait or not to wait: If you’re a casual plan user, you will have to wait for some time for your transcription to be completed due to excessive load by the users. However, if you’re a professional or a team user, you get your results ASAP. The wait time depends on the plan you’re subscribed to .

• Be notified: You will receive a notification once your transcribed document is ready. An e-mail will be sent to your inbox containing the link to access and download the document.

Get started with audio-to-text transcription today with Good Tape and save your valuable time by not having to manually transcribe interview audios. Experience the ease and efficiency of transforming your spoken words into accurately written documents to make the process of writing an interview article more smooth and hassle-free.

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How to Write a Profile or Interview-Based Article

The process from interview to conclusion

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A profile is a feature with one very pivotal point and focus—a certain individual who is noteworthy or exemplary in some way. Your readers want to know as much about him as possible. But they don't want the surface stuff, information that's available in untold other articles about him. They want something new. They want something intriguing. And so do the editors who will consider buying your work.

Mastering that art and learning how to write a good profile article can translate into a great new skill for freelance writers , but even seasoned journalists can sometimes have trouble with them. Anyone can benefit from brushing up on the basics because these are among the main types of pieces published in magazines and newspapers. 

The Nuts and Bolts of a Profile Article

The person or subject of this type of article typically fits into a special niche of the magazine or has a new program or product to promote. Generally, her achievements, background, and personality are the focus of the article. So how do you get her personality and voice to come through in your writing? As with all types of writing, it can be a bit tricky, but you can follow some prescribed steps and refine them to your own style. 

This method not only builds the article around your subject's voice, but it also tends to get from transcript to rough draft fairly quickly—a real bonus when time is money.

Interview Your Subject 

First, you must deal with conducting the actual interview. You can't write an article, much less a profile piece, if you don't have all the underlying information.

You'll wrap up your interview either with a set of notes or a sound recording, but preferably both. It's usually a bad idea to rely entirely on written notes, particularly in this day and age when you don't have to. You're likely to miss telling voice tones and possibly inferences if you're so busy scribbling everything down that you're not really  listening. 

Not only that, but you're not engaging your target either. You're busy jotting down the information you think you need—today, right now, before you've really begun fleshing out your profile. If you're really listening to your subject as he speaks, you might be surprised at the questions that pop into your mind as you go along. If you're curious about his answers, the odds are strong that your readers will be as well. Stay on your toes. 

If you do take written notes, be sure to tidy up them up and double check any special spellings or names while the interview and the interviewee are still fresh in your mind. Otherwise, commit the entire interview to a recording. Then you can sit down later and listen and transcribe what was said. And you'll always have the recording to refer back to if you later have questions. 

Organize Your Data

If you use a recording device, you might want to consider hiring a transcriptionist to put the recording into writing for you. They're surprisingly affordable, and you can deduct the cost as a business expense  come tax time. But some writers are actually fleet enough of fingers to do this themselves, and it can be beneficial.

Make a one-time, tax-deductible purchase of a dictation recorder and machine, the kind that is used in offices all over the country. Transfer the recording to tape, pop the tape into the machine, and begin typing with a handy little foot pedal that lets you pause the recording when you need to catch up.

This can be a worthwhile purchase if you do a lot of writing that involves interviews. And here's the bonus. When you hit periods of conversation that really don't contribute anything to your profile, you can fast-forward right through them. You'll still have them there on tape if you want to go back to them later, but, again, time is money. Don't waste yours typing words of dialogue you'll never use, or highlighting numerous pages of a transcript you had someone else type for you word for word. 

You'll want to limit this period of lag time to a day or two at most, however. You risk losing your gut impressions and instincts—not to mention your motivation—if too much time passes between the interview and when you begin actually writing. And you don't want to wake up yawning one morning to realize that the finished product is due  today  and you haven't even gotten past this step yet. But you know that already, right? Freelancing for a living requires superhuman discipline. 

Review the Transcript 

Now it's time to review your transcript or notes. Identify broad subjects that stick out to you. Are there any recurring items, events, or ideas that this person seems to keep going back to? Is anything mentioned twice, three times, or with great passion? Try to gather at least three to five broad subjects from this first reading.

In a perfect world, your interview subject left the door open, and you can go back with a quick phone call to clarify these high points or get additional information. 

Narrow Your Focus 

Narrow down these broad items. This is a good time to reread the assignment  from your editor or, if you're working on something you've pitched to an editor, read over your own pitch. If you haven't even pitched the idea or if you're just flying with this, go back to your original notes. 

Was a particular, specific slant mentioned anywhere, such as concentration on the subject's recent accomplishments or promotion of a certain service? Compare your broad subjects to any research on the person that you might have done even before the interview took place. Compare them to your editor's directives or to your own goals. Pull out and refine these broad subject areas and place them temporarily in your transcript as your subheads. You can rename them to catchy subhead titles now, or you can wait until you have a finished product so you can be sure the subheads really grab the gist of the subject area.

Cut and Paste 

Use your word processing program's cut-and-paste function to pull the interviewee's quotes about each topic into the appropriate subhead area. Of course, this is easiest if you transcribed the interview recording yourself, but plenty of software programs out there let you scan and edit a transcript typed by someone else if you didn't receive it in a word processor file. 

Now you're pulling the subject's words out of the chronological order in which he spoke them, but that's OK. In fact, it's ideal. You're not just rewriting what he said. You're writing a profile. 

It's not necessary to pull whole paragraphs. At this point, you'll have a feeling for the direction that your article is taking. Get the best quotes sorted and just leave the rest for future reference. 

Practice Your Craft

By now you should have three to five subtitles, depending on your target length, and some great quotes about each of those topics. It's time to tell your readers why all the subtitles are important.

Use transitional phrasing, such as "Mr. Blank agrees..." or "Ms. SoAndSo makes this clear when she..." to move into your subject's quotes. Finish out the paragraph, subtitle, or idea with more research or exposition, and wrap it up or transition it to the next subtitle.

Write Your Introduction 

Write the introduction . This step depends on your own writing style and preferences. 

Many writers prefer to do this first before fleshing out their subtitles. It can establish some internal guidelines for the subtitles and help you get things sorted out in your own mind as to where you're going with this story. But whether you do it before or after you flesh out your subtitles, introduce the subject, her history, and the background of your piece. The introduction should reflect on the article in general, and it should also frame the interviewee in some way. 

Now wrap things up with your conclusion . It often alludes back to the introduction or some interesting part of the interview. You can also use it to give a look ahead to the interviewee's future plans.

No, you're not done yet. Now reread. Revise. Rewrite. And repeat. 

Tips From Start to Finish

• Conduct research on your subject prior to interviewing.
• Follow your editor's specifications and listen to that person's take on the interviewee's interest points.
• Allow yourself a day or two after the rough draft before editing, if possible.
• Be aware of the word count assigned as you're writing and make edits , if necessary. 

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How to Interview Someone for an Article

Last Updated: March 11, 2024

This article was reviewed by Gerald Posner . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. This article has been viewed 46,665 times.

The best interviews are conversational, yet still have structure. This article will walk you through some important things to cover during your interview, as well as provide guidance on how to craft an effective interview question. Read on for more!

Do your homework.

• If the person is a known author or speaker, take the time to read or listen to their work, or at least get familiar with their most recent or most important work.
• If the person is an official or leader, familiarize yourself with that person's organization. Look around the website.
• If the interview will cover recent events, review whatever is known publicly about those events.

Contact the interviewee.

• Tell them what your article will be about, and why you would like to interview them.
• Politely ask if you can interview them.
• Schedule a time to meet in a quiet location, or schedule a time to interview the person by phone.
• Be respectful of the person's time and schedule.

Write down a list of questions beforehand.

Bring a recording device to the interview.

Be courteous and hospitable.

• Arrive on time or a little early.
• Set up anything you need set up in advance. Sound check your recording device.
• Thank the person for agreeing to meet.
• If you are meeting in person, show the interviewee in, offer a seat, and offer water, coffee or tea.
• State any time limits out loud, right at the beginning of the visit. "Let's get started, so we can finish by 2pm and make sure you don't miss your next appointment."
• Ask the interviewee's permission to record their remarks.

Have a natural conversation.

Begin with introductions.

Go into deeper discussion.

Treat it like a conversation.

Steer the interview where it needs to go.

Don't ask too many questions.

Don't be nervous.

Thank them when it's over.

End the interview when it seems appropriate.

Confirm and write down the subject's full name.

Offer a preview.

What Are The Dos And Don’ts Of a Journalistic Interview?

Expert Q&A

• Write a list of questions beforehand so you have a good idea of what you need to ask during the interview (when you might be a bit nervous). Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
• Don't just read your questions to the interviewee. Refer to it only as needed to stimulate responses. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

• Keep things light and respectful. You'll gather much more information if your subject is relaxed and engaged in friendly conversation. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 0

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Interviewing a Person for a Magazine Article

Magazine Interviewing

If you are interviewing an author, sometimes their publisher will help set up an interview with this individual.  Do not leave that option out.  Publishers also want more good public relations (PR) for their clients.  Sometimes these publishers you may even give you complimentary books for your background research on these people.  If you do go this route, don’t forget to get a copy of the published article to the publisher that assisted you with the interview.  This shows you as a professional and it also builds up your credibility and reputation as a credible writer for future projects.

Once you set your sights on a particular person to interview, do your footwork and do some research about this individual.  This will benefit both you and the person being interviewed.  You won’t feel as nervous and that person will be flattered that you took the time to find out information about them.  It’s critical that you prepare and make sure you consider any comments from your editor on this piece.  Make sure you stay within the parameters and the tone wanted for a magazine.

When setting up a time for the interview, ask them where they would like to meet or if they have preferences.  You want them to be in a setting where they will feel comfortable.  Set up the time and location and make any accommodations or necessary arrangements as to what is needed for the interview.  Make sure that you have all the appropriate equipment ready for the interview; recorder, camera for pictures, writing material, etc.  It’s important to ensure that they are all working so there are no glitches.

Interviews can be done face-to-face, through the internet or phone, through email or Skype or whatever other medium you may decide to use.  The best interviews are probably the ones that are done face-to-face because you tend to see all the body language and this helps to interpret where that individual is coming from.

Unless you work for a major TV network or have access to camera equipment, most interviews will be done using just a recorder and a pen and notepad; although, the possibilities of using laptops for jotting down notes can be used.  I would caution against this as this takes away from the intimacy of the interview and the clicking of your fingers on the keyboard may be distracting.  It’s probably best to stay away from this.  You can take a camera and request a photo after the interview but don’t push this as some people may not like to be photographed.

It’s best to use a recorder so that you can review the information after the interview.  This ensures that you capture everything said in the interview.  It’s important to make sure the information is accurate before publishing any responses to an article or news media.  This will differentiate you as a professional and will insure that there are no misquotes.

Questions for a Magazine Interview

Decide on what it is that you want to take away from the interview.  Decide on a set of topics that you would like to cover and then draft up questions that would be used for the interview.  Make the questions opened ended but be prepared for yes and no answers so always have a backup plan.  Ask interesting questions and include things that you believe your target audience would find informative. It’s best to prepare your questions ahead of time and then let them sit for a day or two before reviewing again.  Rank them in the order of importance in case you run out of time.  Make sure that your questions are concise and methodical and that they cover the adequate information needed for your article.

Before you begin the interview, get the individual in the right mood by starting with some small talk.  Small talk usually makes puts people at ease and helps to calm the nerves.  Try not to keep digging for answers to questions that they may not want to answer.

A common mistake amongst interviewers is that they tend to interrupt the person they are interviewing.  Once you ask the question wait for the answer. Give them time to answer and try not to chime in.  There may be awkward moments and that is okay.

Allow a minimum of 20 minutes for any interview unless the interviewee just can’t give you this amount of time.  Once the interview is over – thank them for their time.

After the Magazine Interview

Review your notes and recorder shortly after the interview.  It’s best to review the material while the interview responses are still clear in your thoughts.  It is also advisable to make sure that the equipment worked during the interview.

Make sure you check any facts from the interview.  Sometimes the interviewees don’t provide factual material and it’s up to you to ensure that the facts are accurate.

Send a thank you note right away to your subject person.

Before you begin writing the article, organize your thoughts and the information received during the interview so that you end up with a great editorial piece.  Remember to state your main ideas clearly.

Once you get published make sure to provide the appropriate parties a copy of the interview or article.  It is not necessary to let them see the interview ahead of time; however, there are occasions when they would want to see it before publication.

Conducting an interview is a give-and-take process but be prepared for any curve balls that may be thrown your direction.  Make it sound interesting and be professional.

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How to ask good questions (for a magazine interview)

Asking good questions is hard. In most interviews I’ve done and read, I tend to hear a lot of the same questions. It seems that people either don’t research their guest before interviewing them, or they do light research and repeat what we all know in an effort to prove they did light research.

Both approaches result in a boring experience for the person being interviewed and a boring read for the audience. It’s why (among other reasons), even though someone asking to interview you is a great honor, many people who are often interviewed come to dread it.

I’m no pro at interviewing people, but between my NTMY podcast and the ongoing interview series we do on this blog, I’ve learned what separates forgettable interviews from memorable ones.

"Get as much context as you can and then think about what you still want to know."

Research the hell out of your guest

We spend a couple hours (at least) researching our guests, their work, industry, history, culture, clients, Tweets, etc. before we interview them. We find and read all the interviews they’ve already done. We read what Wikipedia has to say.  We read whatever they’ve written themselves. We do everything short of stalking them at their local grocery store.

When beginning to write your questions, write down every question you have about your guest.  As you research, eliminate the questions you find answers to. Get as much information as you can and then think about what you still want to know. This is what helps you ask great questions. It also helps you avoid questions they’ve already been asked. Eliminating those questions is your goal because 1. Your audience can or has already read about it elsewhere 2. Your guest has already said all they can say about it (unless of course, the story has developed since those interviews).

With almost every interview I’ve done, I’m asked a question I could easily answer by linking to another interview or article I wrote. I can see why this happens – people know you have an opinion on that subject so they want you to speak about it on their platform, whether or not you’ve already said it before. But even if you do want to discuss a topic someone often speaks about, try to find a fresh angle. Your guest and audience will thank you for it.

Think about the answers you want to receive

When preparing your questions, think about what you want your reader to say. This doesn’t mean you should write leading questions that back them into a corner. It means you should set your guest up to give you the best, most sparkling answer possible. Here are the questions to strike from your list immediately:

Question to avoid: “What’s your story? How did get where you are today?”

Why: Do you really want a paragraphs-long autobiography from your guest? Does your guest want to spend the time summing up their whole life’s journey for this interview? Does your audience want to read it? No. Asking for someone’s life story is like asking them to recount their “crazy” dream from last night. You’ll be bored and regret it immediately. Besides, the goal of your interview is to reveal their story. Not for them to tell their same-old version of it.

Question to avoid: “If you had to do/be/choose/go [insert whatever here], which/who/where would it be?”

Why: This type of question is lazy and results in a one-word, hollow response. Who cares what color your guest would be if they had to be a color? Who cares what they’d do if they had to choose between a tank full of sharks and room full of spiders? This rarely reveals anything meaningful about a person.

Question to avoid: “You’ve mentioned X in the past. Can you please expand on that?”

Why: Asking your guest to “expand” on something they said in another interview isn’t really asking a question. It results in your guest simply rephrasing the thing they’ve already said. Besides, there’s likely something specific that sparked your interest in that topic in the first place. Ask a question about that. Be more specific.

With every question you ask, you should be thinking about the answers you want to receive and the story you want to tell with this interview. What side of this person do you want to explore? What's the angle? Starting here will help you shape a cohesive narrative around the interview, rather than asking random, unrelated questions simply for the sake of asking them.

"Avoid questions that feel insidery or complex. They spend all day talking about that shit, and your audience won’t understand it anyway."

Make it fun for your guest, not just your audience

Make this the best interview they’ve ever done. The more positive experience your guest has, the more they will open up and give you great answers. Plus, you may be giving them exposure but this interview is also a favor to you. Be considerate by keeping the following in mind:

Remember your goal isn’t to impress the person you’re interviewing.

Be straightforward and ask your question in simple, conversational language. Avoid questions that feel insidery or complex. They spend all day talking about that shit, and your audience won’t understand it anyway. Give them a break from it. Make your conversation a refreshing escape from their everyday.

Be straightforward. Don’t talk around your question.

Don’t make your guest have to guess what you might be getting at or ask you to repeat the question.

Refine and condense your questions.

Long interviews are fine if the questions are all killer. Long interviews with filler questions and redundancies are not only a waste of everyone’s precious time (your guest, your editor, you), but will also flip the “off” switch for your guest and your reader. Your guest will get tired and your audience will tune out.

When preparing for your interview, ask yourself: What kind of questions would you want to answer?

Experiment with in-person and offline formats

Of course, one format can't apply to all interviews and shouldn’t. Sometimes, a live interview is necessary to capture the scene, the emotions or the immediate, unedited reaction from a person. A live interview also makes for more natural conversation and allows for easier follow-up questions. Other times, a written interview provokes better, more thoughtful answers because the person has more time to think in an environment that makes them at ease.

For most of our magazine's interviews, we usually have our guests answer our questions via email. One reason being, many of our guests speak English as a second language so this gives them to formulate their thoughts and say what they really want to say, rather than putting the pressure on in-person. Plus, it allows them to answer on their own time, which makes busy people more likely to agree to the interview in the first place. Again, it depends on your goals and the format of your platform.

Be willing to go off-script

It’s easy to write up your questions, have your guest fill in the blanks and call it done. This is one downside to a written interview format – any follow-up questions are more inconvenient and don’t flow naturally in a conversation. But no matter the format, it’s worth asking those follow-ups. Your interviewee may mention something as an aside that could open up a whole new direction for the interview. Let it go there. You might hear something in their answer that piques your interest. Try digging a little deeper. If you are doing the interview via email, this is as easy as shooting a quick note or making a comment on a shared doc.

It’s tempting to plow through your script, whether you’re nervous in person or you just want to get the job done. But if you pause to absorb your guest’s answers and take time to ask the follow-ups, you may discover much more about the person or subject than you would otherwise. Don’t feel obligated to stick to a template.

There’s much more to learn depending on the type of interview you're conducting. A TV host may give you different advice than a news journalist. A blog writer will take a different approach than a podcast host. But generally, I’ve found these rules lead to better questions and as a result, better interviews.

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How Writers Interview Experts and Witnesses for Magazine Articles

• by Laurie Pawlik
• October 17, 2020

Writers interview experts, witnesses and other sources for information. Interviews also make articles, books and blog posts more interesting. Direct quotations and real-life experiences are exactly what writers need to make a boring, dry topic more interesting and relevant to readers. These tips on how to interview experts and witnesses will help you find and talk to the best sources.

I also tackle one of my favorite questions about interviewing sources. Should writers use email to interview experts and witnesses? As a freelance writer, I interview sources over email 90% of the time. Email interviews are not a best practice for freelancers who are writing exposes, feature articles, or personality profiles. But if you’re writing an article about something general or uncomplicated (such as how to interview someone famous for a magazine article or even how to get published in in Reader’s Digest ), you can use email to interview sources.

Here are 10 “best practices” (tips) on how to interview experts. Below that are a few benefits and drawbacks of email interviews with experts, professionals and witnesses for freelance magazine and newspaper articles.

These insights are from a panel of professional journalists and freelance writers at the Writer’s Craft Fair hosted by the BC Association of Magazine Publishers.

10 Tips for Writers Interviewing Experts and Witnesses

When you interview someone for an article – whether it’s a NASA astrophysicist or your dear old dad – always write down or record your time together. Direct quotations will bring your writing to life, make the topic more interesting, and reveal the expert’s personality.

One of the reasons I prefer email interviews is that I have the expert or source’s exact words in writing. This avoids the “she said/he said” trap that some writers fall into. I’ve never had to prove an expert or source said something, but I don’t write articles that are controversial.

1. Know your own emotional triggers

Certain topics are taboo (money, politics, religion, sex), which can make you feel awkward when asking sources certain questions. Unless, of course, you’re writing an article about finances, political issues, religion or relationships. When you feel uncomfortable talking about a certain topic, such as how much money freelance writers or content creators make , remember that the expert you are interviewing is probably very comfortable with the topic. After all, he or she is the expert! If they weren’t able or willing to talk about something they should know about, you shouldn’t be interviewing them. Here’s the bottom line: when you’re interviewing a source for an article, make sure your own issues aren’t preventing you from asking direct, relevant questions.

2. Share a little about yourself to establish rapport

Making a connection with your source with a shared interest, similar like or dislike, or even a person you both know can be a valuable way to establish rapport. A writer’s main focus should be on interviewing the source, but both professional experts and regular folks will tell you more if you have something in common. They’ll also give you more details, which will bring your book or article alive.

3. Let there be “spaces in your togetherness”

One of my favorite quotations is Rumi’s “Let there be spaces in your togetherness.” This tip for interviewing sources simply means stop talking. Even a five second pause can feel endless – but those pools of silence will eventually reveal gems of information. Give your experts time to think, to reflect, and to figure out how to say what they want. Get comfortable with silence; it’s a powerful tool for encouraging experts and other sources to speak up. it’s a great way to discover fascinating tidbits.

4. Do a few hours of research in advance

Dig around in your source’s past. Discover small, seemingly insignificant details about his or her life. Then, ask him or her for clarification on certain activities or quotations. Show that you’ve spent some time doing your research. This a simple tip for interviewing sources for articles that facilitates trust and shows that you’re eager, smart and prepared. Preparing in advance by researching your source’s background will also build your own interest in the topic.

5. Get the basic information right

Make sure you know your source’s correct name, profession, education, location, family status, hobbies – whatever is most relevant to the article or book you’re writing. Getting basic facts wrong is a sign of carelessness or sloppiness, and could affect your future relationship with the expert source. Errors also decrease your chances of landing another magazine assignment from the editor or getting your book published.

6. Prepare questions in advance, but…

Have a list of questions to ask your expert about the article or book topic. The best and most successful writers prepare too many questions because they’re curious! But, don’t hesitate to ask different questions when you’re actually conducting the interview. The more experience you get as a writer who interviews expert sources, the easier it’ll be to recognize when the discussion isn’t relevant for the article or book. When you discover you are off track, return to the foundation questions that you prepared in advance of the interview.

7. Edit the expert’s direct quotations for clarity and brevity

Even the most professional sources and experts talk in circles. They use many “um’s” and “like’s” and “you knows” in conversation. When a writer quotes an expert source directly, the writer does not include those extra bits. Unless, of course, they add something to the book or article. Sometimes a source’s mannerisms add flavor and depth to the writer’s work. Never change the meaning or essence of what the expert or witness said. Simpy ensure that direct quotations make sense.

8. Tell your source that you are recording the interview

Some journalists or freelance writers don’t tell their sources that the interview is being recorded. An experienced writer may assume that everyone knows that interviews are recorded as a best practice for journalism and even book writing. Don’t be the writer who assumes anything about the expert! Always inform your source before recording the interview.

Are you writing about love or marriage? Read 10 Tips for Writing Relationship Articles and Blog Posts .

9. Ask for leads to other relevant sources, places, or experiences

I’ve interviewed over 12 experts, professionals and laypeople for one magazine article. Everyone has a different perspective and experience with the topic; a good writer finds and uses as many relevant insights as possible. The best books and articles include both sides of an issue, to show readers more depth and complexity. One source or expert is rarely enough for a solid magazine article or informative book. How do you find more professional sources to interview? Ask your interview subjects for recommendations or suggestions. Even visiting a place can be a valuable source of additional information (even thought it’s kinda hard to interview a place like a mountain or a fruit such as a kumquat).

10. At the end of the interview, asked what you missed

3 great questions at the end of an interview:

• “What would surprise readers to learn about X?”
• “What do you wish you knew about X before you started?”
• “Is there anything I missed that you think people ought to know?”

As we’re wrapping up the interview, I remind my experts that they may remember more information later. I invite them to email me even if they think the new info may not be relevant to the article or book.

Should writers use email to do interviews?

I’m an introverted blogger prefers the big picture (the forest) over the details (the trees). As such I prefer email interviews. I find that interviewing a source or expert in person or even on the phone is time-consuming and draining. I have never conducted an interview over Skype, Zoom, or other online platforms.

If you’re a writer who believes that direct face-to-face email interviews are better than email interviews, I’d agree 100% with you! Although, it depends on how you define “better.” Email interviews are not a professional journalists best practice, but they’re perfect for freelance writers like me. I write general, tips-based, nonfiction magazine articles and blog posts. In-person interviews are almost never necessary.

5 Reasons Writers Use Email to Interview Sources

• Email is efficient, effective, and easy.
• Email interviews are more accurate because the information is easily verifiable. I can quote a source’s exact words without worrying about misunderstanding or misinterpreting information.
• Email is a fast way to interview several different experts or sources at the same time.
• Professional experts, sources and witnesses are busy. Email interviews give them the opportunity to think through their answers in advance and write me at their convenience.
• Email interviews give me more time to do other things, and don’t drain my energy.

The articles I write don’t require in-depth discussions, personal descriptions, or even that much verification. Most of my magazine articles and all of my blog posts are based on email interviews (if an expert or source is quoted). For example, How to Avoid Making Foolish Mistakes With Magazine Editors is the result of an email interview with the editor-in-chief of Vancouver’s alive magazine.

4 Tips for Conducting Email Interviews

• Don’t email an expert by email if the info you require is complex, emotional, personal, or controversial. Email interviews work best with about 7 questions. Sometimes I ask 10 questions, and invite the expert source to answer the ones that make the most sense to them. If your article or book is straightforward and general, an email interview is probably sufficient. Most round up and “top ten” articles are perfectly suited for email interviews. That said, however, direct quotations from sources really do make writing more interesting to read.
• Consider the nature of the article or book you are writing. Emailing sources is fine if you’re conducting an opinion poll, survey or questionnaire. Questions that are direct and simple – and that require “yes or no” , “true or false”, or “choose A, B, or C” – answers are perfect for email interviews. These questions rarely require telephone calls or face-to-face visits to experts.
• Work with your expert sources. Some experts I’ve approached for my articles said they prefer telephone interviews, not email. In most cases I simply find another source to interview. Though I have conducted both in-person and telephone interviews, I prefer the convenience and agility of email.
• Consider your readers’ preferences. Are you writing an author personality profile for Writer’s Digest and or collecting writing tips from famous writers like Stephen King or JK Rowling? Do an in-person interview. Your readers will love the details you can add to the article or book. Seeing writers in person will give you information, mannerisms, nuances, style, facial expressions, and environment that will make your article or book more interesting.

Finding time to interview an expert face-to-face can be difficult. Interviewing a source in person can also be awkward or uncomfortable if you don’t actually like the person or feel comfortable talking to him or her! You also have to ensure that your recording device does not fail, and have a back-up recording method.

In-person interviews give both writers and readers a much more accurate sense of the person or place, but email interviews are easier. Which do you prefer?

If you want to write for newspapers or magazines but don’t know what to write about, read 11 Most Popular Types of Magazine Articles – Print & Online .

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8 thoughts on “How Writers Interview Experts and Witnesses for Magazine Articles”

Asking thoughtful and engaging questions can help uncover unique insights and provide valuable content for your readers.

I’m an author and journalism teacher. I encourage interviewers to ask these questions when interviewing authors:

What inspired you to write this book? This question delves into the author’s creative process and motivations behind their work. It provides readers with insights into the inspiration behind the story, characters, or themes explored in the book. Additionally, it allows the author to share personal anecdotes or experiences that influenced their writing journey, creating a deeper connection with readers.

Can you share a memorable moment or experience from your writing journey? Asking about memorable moments or experiences during the writing journey allows the author to reflect on significant milestones, challenges overcome, or unexpected discoveries. It provides readers with behind-the-scenes insights into the author’s process, struggles, and triumphs, fostering a deeper appreciation for the craft of writing and the dedication required to bring a book to life.

What message or emotion do you hope readers take away from your book? This question invites the author to discuss the themes, messages, or emotions they aimed to convey through their writing. It provides readers with insights into the deeper layers of the book and encourages reflection on its impact and relevance.

Additionally, it allows the author to share their perspective on the broader significance of their work and its potential to resonate with readers on a personal or universal level.

By asking these questions, you can engage the author in meaningful discussions that provide valuable insights and perspectives for your blog post interview. Additionally, consider tailoring your questions to the specific themes, style, or audience of the author’s book to ensure relevance and resonance with your readers.

Try asking these questions. They’ll add a layer to your interview that will be interesting to readers.

Hi Thandie ~ I’m glad you found this article when you searched for tips on interviewing sources and experts for articles! Yes, I’ll try to find time to look at your website — but be patient. Time is a scarce commodity these days 🙂

Thanks, this was a great source of info. Did a Google search in this came right up! Exactly what I needed to know. I’m a aspiring freelance writer and need all the help I can get, so if you do have any spare time, please can you have a look at my website – it’s an online writing portfolio. You feedback would be most appreciated!

Thanks again!

Thanks for your comment, George — I hope these tips for interviewing sources make a difference in your next article! .-= Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen´s last blog post ..6 Ways to Keep Your Blog High in Google’s Search Engine Results =-.

Well there you have it. All writers should pay attention here because no matter what kind of writing you normally do, there will be a time when you need to interview someone.

Personally, I’ve always been very uncomfortable interviewing because I know I suck at asking the right questions. This set of tips should get me on the right track and I’ll keep them at heart.

George .-= Tumblemoose´s last blog post ..Positively Excited About the New Blog of the Week =-.

My preference has always been phone interviews. I had open-ended questions that needed good explanations, but trying to take notes while I was face-to-face with my experts didn’t work well. On the phone, I can concentrate on their answers, typing them as I go. (Of course, it helps that I type 90 wpm!)

I’m about to send out several requests for e-mail interviews, though, and I appreciate the validation that there’s a right time and place for each method. Thanks!

Thanks for your comment, Michelle! I’m really curious – why did it go horribly? If you want to share, I’d love to know! (enquiring minds and all that 🙂 ).

I just did a brief phone interview the other day — and found that it took about four times as long to get information as email would have. It really depends on the article or story you’re writing, and the expert or source.

Maybe there’s an article in here somewhere, for a writing magazine? It’s been done before I’m sure, but there might be a new angle here…..

I did my first expert interview by telephone last Friday and it went horribly, to be fair I don’t blame the medium but an email interview would probably have been less painful.

30 Magazine Journalist Interview Questions and Answers

Common Magazine Journalist interview questions, how to answer them, and example answers from a certified career coach.

In the dynamic world of journalism, a magazine journalist not only needs to have a flair for writing but also an innate curiosity and excellent research skills. If you’re preparing for an interview for this challenging yet rewarding role, it’s essential that you are ready to showcase not just your journalistic abilities, but also your understanding of the publication’s audience, style, and ethos.

To help you confidently stride into your upcoming interview, we’ve prepared a guide outlining some potential questions you may face as a prospective magazine journalist. This article will provide insights on how to craft compelling responses that highlight your skillset, passion, and dedication to delivering captivating stories.

1. What is your process for identifying and developing compelling story ideas?

This question is critical because it delves into your creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking skills. Journalism isn’t just about writing; it’s about storytelling. It’s about uncovering the stories that aren’t being told and finding unique angles on the ones that are. So, an interviewer wants to know how you come up with fresh, engaging ideas and how you flesh them out into full-fledged, compelling narratives.

Example: “Identifying compelling story ideas involves staying updated with current events, trends and public interests. I often use social media platforms, news outlets, and forums to gauge what’s resonating with people.

Developing these ideas requires a deep-dive research approach. This includes interviewing key figures, exploring different perspectives, and gathering relevant data.

The goal is to create stories that are engaging, informative, and impactful. It’s essential to maintain journalistic integrity throughout the process, ensuring accuracy and fairness in reporting.”

2. How have you handled a situation where a source refused to provide necessary information?

This question is all about your problem-solving and persistence skills, two essential traits for any journalist. In the course of your career, you’ll likely encounter sources who, for one reason or another, are reluctant to provide the information you need. Interviewers ask this question to see how you navigate these tricky situations and how well you can still deliver a compelling story despite the challenges.

Example: “In such situations, I usually employ a two-pronged approach.

Firstly, I try to build rapport with the source by engaging them in casual conversation and showing genuine interest in their perspective. This often helps break down barriers and encourages more open communication.

If this doesn’t work, I explore alternative sources of information. For instance, if it’s an industry-specific piece, I might reach out to other experts or professionals within the field. Public records can also be invaluable resources for fact-checking and gathering additional data.

Ultimately, my goal is always to produce accurate, balanced reporting, even when faced with reluctant sources.”

3. Describe an instance when you had to meet tight deadlines, how did you ensure quality wasn’t compromised?

In the fast-paced world of journalism, deadlines are king. An editor needs to know that you can produce high-quality work quickly and efficiently, without missing deadlines. Yet, they also need to be confident that the speed will not compromise the quality and accuracy of your work. This question aims to understand your time-management skills, your ability to work under pressure, and your commitment to maintaining quality even in demanding circumstances.

Example: “In one instance, I had to cover a major event and the article was due within 24 hours. Understanding the importance of accuracy and quality in journalism, I prioritized my tasks effectively.

I conducted quick yet thorough research, interviewed relevant people, and took detailed notes to ensure I captured all necessary information. Then, I drafted the article, ensuring it was engaging and factually correct.

To maintain quality, I reviewed my work multiple times for any errors or inconsistencies. Despite the time pressure, I delivered the article on time without compromising its quality.”

4. In what ways have you used social media platforms to promote your articles or journalistic pieces?

This question is all about your understanding of the digital landscape and how you can leverage it to gain visibility for your work. In today’s fast-paced media world, simply writing a great article isn’t enough. You must also be savvy about promoting your work and engaging with readers online. By asking this question, hiring managers want to assess your digital marketing skills and your ability to attract and engage an online audience.

Example: “I’ve leveraged social media platforms to promote my articles in several ways. I often use Twitter to share snippets or quotes from the piece that might intrigue potential readers, along with a link to the full article. On Instagram, I create engaging visuals related to the topic and include a call-to-action directing followers to read more on our website.

On LinkedIn, I engage with professionals by sharing my pieces and sparking discussions around the topics covered. Facebook is great for reaching a broader audience; here I post links to my articles with a brief summary.

Overall, each platform has its unique strengths which can be utilized effectively to increase visibility and engagement with journalistic content.”

5. What’s the most challenging interview you’ve conducted and why was it difficult?

As a magazine journalist, conducting interviews is a core part of your job. Not all interviews go smoothly, and sometimes you have to navigate challenging situations to get the information you need. This question is designed to understand how you handle these tough scenarios, from unresponsive or hostile interviewees, to complex subject matter, or even technical difficulties. Your response will give insight into your problem-solving skills, resilience, and dedication.

Example: “The most challenging interview I conducted was with a renowned artist who was known for his reclusive nature. The difficulty lay in breaking through his initial reticence and encouraging him to open up about his work. It required careful questioning, active listening, and patience. This experience taught me the importance of building rapport and adapting my approach depending on the interviewee’s personality. It also underscored the need for thorough preparation beforehand to understand their background and interests better.”

6. Share an example of a time when you effectively reported on a complex topic.

The heart of journalism lies in the ability to take complex, intricate topics and present them in a way that is easy for the public to understand and engage with. This question aims to understand your ability to simplify complex information, gauge your research skills, and how you handle reporting on challenging subjects. It also gives an insight into your creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities.

Example: “In my experience, reporting on complex topics requires a blend of thorough research and clear communication. An instance that comes to mind is when I was tasked with writing an article about the impact of blockchain technology on the financial sector.

I began by immersing myself in the subject matter, studying technical papers and interviewing industry experts. Once I had a solid understanding, I focused on distilling this information into digestible content for our readership.

The final piece was well-received, effectively demystifying a complex topic without oversimplification. This process underscored the importance of balancing depth of knowledge with accessibility in journalism.”

7. How do you fact-check your work before submitting it for publication?

Accuracy is the backbone of journalism, and in the era of “fake news” accusations, it’s never been more important. Employers want to see that you take the responsibility of delivering accurate, unbiased information seriously. Mistakes not only undermine your credibility as a journalist but can also harm the reputation of the publication you work for. Therefore, demonstrating your commitment to diligent fact-checking can make you a more appealing candidate.

Example: “I start by cross-referencing my work with multiple reliable sources. I ensure that the data and statistics used are from credible research studies or institutions. For quotes, I double-check their accuracy and context. If possible, I also reach out to experts in the field for confirmation of technical details. Furthermore, I use fact-checking tools available online to verify information. Lastly, I proofread thoroughly for any errors in grammar or punctuation. This rigorous process helps me maintain the integrity and credibility of my work.”

8. Have you ever faced ethical dilemmas in your journalism career? If so, how did you handle them?

Journalism is a field where ethics play a pivotal role. Stories can influence public opinion, change lives, and even topple governments. As such, potential employers want to know if you can navigate the murky waters of ethical dilemmas with integrity. They want to ensure that you can make tough decisions that uphold the principles of truth, accuracy, and fairness, even when under pressure.

Example: “Yes, ethical dilemmas are common in journalism. One instance was when I had to report on a sensitive issue involving a high-profile individual. The challenge was maintaining the balance of providing accurate and fair reporting while respecting privacy boundaries.

I adhered strictly to our code of ethics, which emphasizes truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness, and public accountability. I also sought guidance from my editor and legal team to ensure we were not infringing on any rights or crossing ethical lines.

In the end, we published an article that was factual, balanced, and respectful. This experience reinforced the importance of journalistic integrity and navigating ethical issues with care.”

9. How do you maintain relationships with sources while ensuring objectivity?

As a journalist, your credibility is paramount. Balancing the need for reliable sources with the responsibility to report objectively is a critical skill for a journalist. Interviewers want to gauge your integrity and ability to maintain professional boundaries. They’re interested in your understanding of journalism ethics and your strategies for staying unbiased while cultivating necessary relationships with sources.

Example: “Maintaining relationships with sources while ensuring objectivity requires a delicate balance. It’s crucial to establish trust and rapport, but also set clear boundaries.

I ensure my sources understand that while I value our relationship, my primary duty is towards the truth. I maintain transparency about this dual role from the beginning.

To avoid bias, I corroborate information from multiple sources wherever possible. This helps in presenting an unbiased view of the story.

Ethics are non-negotiable for me. Even if it means risking a source relationship, I will not compromise on journalistic integrity.”

10. What strategies do you use to write engaging headlines and leads?

The power of a punchy headline and a captivating lead cannot be overstated in journalism. These are the hooks that draw readers in and make them want to read the rest of your story. Employers want to be sure that you understand this and have strategies in place to ensure your articles will catch the reader’s attention from the very beginning.

Example: “I approach headline and lead writing with a focus on intrigue and relevance. It’s crucial to capture the reader’s attention while also conveying what the article is about. I often use action verbs, compelling adjectives, or pose questions that stir curiosity.

For leads, I aim for conciseness and clarity without giving away too much detail. The goal is to hook readers into wanting more. I find it effective to start with an interesting fact, a provocative statement, or a short anecdote relevant to the topic.

It’s important to know your audience and tailor your headlines and leads accordingly. Using SEO keywords can also help in digital platforms to increase visibility and engagement.”

11. How do you respond to criticism or negative feedback on your articles?

The journalistic field values resilience and the ability to accept critique as a means of growth. You’re likely to face criticism from readers, editors, or sources from time to time. Your ability to take feedback constructively, make necessary changes, and continue producing high-quality work despite criticism is a strong indicator of your potential success in journalism.

Example: “I view criticism as an opportunity for growth. When I receive negative feedback, I take a step back and objectively analyze the points raised. If it’s constructive, I incorporate those suggestions into my work to improve.

However, if the critique is subjective or not beneficial, I don’t let it discourage me but use it as motivation to continue refining my skills. As a journalist, I understand that every reader will have their perspective, and it’s impossible to please everyone. The key is maintaining professionalism and staying committed to producing high-quality content.”

12. What experience do you have working with photographers and graphic designers to enhance your stories visually?

This question is important because journalism isn’t just about writing well—it’s about telling a story in the most compelling way possible. And sometimes, that means using visuals to enhance your narrative. By asking this question, hiring managers want to see if you understand the power of visuals and if you have experience collaborating with visual teams—photographers and graphic designers—to create a complete, engaging package for the reader.

Example: “I’ve frequently collaborated with photographers and graphic designers in my career. Often, I would share my story’s vision with them to create a cohesive narrative visually. For instance, when covering a local music festival, I worked closely with a photographer to capture the event’s energy and vibrancy.

Similarly, while working on an investigative piece about urban poverty, I partnered with a graphic designer to develop infographics that effectively communicated complex data. These collaborations have not only enhanced my stories but also taught me the importance of visual elements in storytelling.”

13. How would you approach covering a local event versus a national one?

A journalist’s role is to understand and effectively communicate the context and significance of an event to their audience. The scale and impact of local and national events can be vastly different, and therefore, they require different approaches. This question helps gauge your understanding of the nuances of storytelling and your ability to adapt your reporting style based on the event’s context and your audience’s needs.

Example: “Covering a local event would involve in-depth, on-the-ground reporting. I would focus on the community impact and personal stories to bring out the unique aspects of the event.

For a national event, my approach would be more broad-based. It’s about understanding its implications across the country, gathering diverse perspectives, and analyzing its significance in a wider context.

The key difference lies in the scope and scale of coverage, with local events requiring a micro lens and national ones needing a macro perspective.”

14. Which software tools are you proficient in for article writing and editing?

The essence of being a magazine journalist lies not only in the art of storytelling but also in mastering the tools that help you weave those stories. By asking about your proficiency in different software tools, hiring managers are gauging your technical skills. They want to know if you can work with industry-standard writing and editing tools to create, edit, and polish articles to meet the magazine’s standards.

Example: “I’m proficient in using Microsoft Word for drafting and editing articles due to its advanced features like track changes, comments, and grammar suggestions. I also use Google Docs when collaborating with others as it allows real-time edits. For content management, WordPress is my go-to tool because of its user-friendly interface and SEO optimization features. To ensure grammatical accuracy and style consistency, I utilize Grammarly. Lastly, I am familiar with Adobe InDesign for layout design and formatting tasks.”

15. How do you prepare for interviews with high-profile individuals?

As a journalist, your ability to communicate effectively and extract valuable information from high-profile individuals is critical. These individuals often have busy schedules and limited time, so it’s important that you can maximize your time with them. Furthermore, the quality of your interview can significantly impact the quality of your story. As such, interviewers want to ensure you understand the importance of preparation and have strategies in place to conduct effective interviews.

Example: “Preparing for high-profile interviews involves thorough research on the individual’s background, achievements, and recent activities. I study their public persona as well as personal interests to find unique angles for conversation.

I also prepare a list of open-ended questions that allow them to share in-depth insights. The aim is to make the interview engaging and reveal facets of the person not commonly known.

In addition, I practice active listening skills to respond effectively during the actual interview. It’s about striking a balance between being prepared and being adaptable to unexpected responses or situations.”

16. Tell us about a piece you wrote that had significant impact or received substantial recognition.

This question is often asked to gauge your ability to produce meaningful and influential content. Editors and hiring managers want journalists who can create stories that resonate with readers and provoke thought or action. They’re interested in seeing your ability to dig deep, research thoroughly, and tell a compelling story that can captivate an audience and generate a response.

Example: “One of my most impactful pieces was an investigative report on the mental health crisis in high schools. I interviewed students, teachers, and psychologists to provide a comprehensive view of the issue.

This piece sparked a community-wide dialogue about mental health resources for young people. It also won me the National Press Club Award for Journalism Excellence. The recognition was gratifying, but more importantly, it led to increased funding for school-based mental health programs in our district.”

17. Show us how you would pitch a unique story idea relevant to our magazine’s audience.

The heartbeat of any publication is its content, and as a journalist, your ability to generate fresh, engaging story ideas is paramount. This question probes your creativity, your understanding of the magazine’s brand and audience, and your ability to sell your idea convincingly. The interviewer wants to see your thought process, how well you’ve researched their publication, and whether your style aligns with theirs.

Example: “I propose a story titled “The Green Revolution: How Sustainable Practices are Transforming Urban Living”. This feature would explore the rise of eco-consciousness in urban settings, focusing on innovative solutions that city dwellers employ to reduce their carbon footprint.

We could highlight initiatives like rooftop gardens, solar-powered homes, and community recycling programs. We can also include interviews with environmental experts and everyday citizens making a difference.

This story aligns perfectly with our readers’ interest in sustainable living and offers practical tips they can implement in their own lives. It’s not just informative but inspiring, encouraging readers to be part of this green revolution.”

18. Could you share your experience dealing with sensitive subjects or vulnerable groups?

This question is key because it probes your ability to handle sensitive topics with care and respect. Journalism, by its very nature, often deals with challenging subjects and vulnerable individuals. From interviewing victims of crimes to writing about controversial issues, a journalist must be able to approach these situations with empathy, tact, and responsibility. Hence, your response helps employers gauge your sensitivity, ethical standards, and professionalism.

Example: “In my career, I’ve often dealt with sensitive topics and vulnerable groups. For instance, while covering stories on mental health, it was crucial to approach the subject with empathy and respect.

Understanding their perspective is key. It’s important not to sensationalize or stigmatize their experiences. Instead, we should aim for a balanced narrative that raises awareness and promotes understanding.

I always ensure I’m well-informed about the topic at hand. This includes knowing the appropriate language to use and being aware of any potential triggers.

My goal is to give these individuals a platform to share their stories, in a manner that respects their dignity and privacy.”

19. Are there any journalistic styles or formats you particularly excel at?

This query is designed to evaluate your versatility as a writer and your understanding of different journalistic formats. Each story demands a unique approach, and being able to adapt your writing style to suit the needs of a particular piece is a highly valued skill in journalism. Your interviewer wants to know if you can switch between writing a hard-hitting news article, an in-depth feature story, or a light-hearted lifestyle piece with ease.

Example: “I excel at feature writing, where I can delve deep into a subject, providing readers with an immersive experience. My strength lies in my ability to create vivid imagery and compelling narratives that engage readers on an emotional level.

Furthermore, I am adept at interview-based pieces. With strong interpersonal skills, I am able to establish rapport with interviewees, encouraging them to open up and share their stories. This results in authentic and insightful articles that resonate with the audience.

Moreover, I have honed my skills in investigative journalism. Through careful research, fact-checking, and analysis, I ensure accuracy and integrity in every piece I produce.”

20. How do you balance creativity and factual accuracy in your writing?

As a journalist, your primary responsibility is to inform the public in an accurate and unbiased manner. However, in a magazine setting, storytelling and creative writing often play a significant role. Therefore, this question is asked to gauge how you strike a balance between being informative and engaging in your writing. It’s about ensuring you can deliver an enticing narrative without compromising on the truth or misrepresenting the facts.

Example: “Balancing creativity and factual accuracy in writing is a crucial aspect of journalism. I prioritize research to ensure my information is correct, credible, and up-to-date. This forms the foundation upon which I build my story.

Creativity comes into play when deciding how to present this information. It’s about crafting engaging narratives that resonate with readers while maintaining the integrity of the facts.

I also believe in constant feedback and revisions. They help fine-tune the balance between creativity and accuracy, ensuring neither overshadows the other.”

21. What steps do you take to ensure your language is inclusive and respectful?

Today’s media landscape is incredibly diverse, and journalists must be able to navigate it with sensitivity and understanding. By asking about your approach to inclusive and respectful language, interviewers want to ensure that you’re capable of writing in a way that respects all individuals and communities. This is not only about avoiding offensive language, but also about respecting people’s identities, experiences, and perspectives.

Example: “Inclusive and respectful language is crucial in journalism. I ensure this by staying updated on preferred terminology, particularly regarding gender, race, and disability.

I also avoid making assumptions about individuals’ identities or experiences. Instead, I use neutral terms until the person’s self-identified labels are known.

Moreover, I actively seek diverse sources to present a balanced perspective. This includes voices from different ethnicities, genders, ages, and socio-economic backgrounds.

Lastly, I proofread my work meticulously, checking for any unintentional bias or disrespectful language. If unsure, I consult with colleagues or experts to gain clarity.”

22. What measures do you take to protect confidential sources?

The essence of journalism is integrity and the protection of sources is a cornerstone of this profession. If a source fears that their identity may be compromised, they might withhold vital information, which could ultimately affect the completeness and accuracy of a story. Therefore, interviewers want assurance that you understand the ethical guidelines of journalism, and that you have practical strategies for upholding these principles.

Example: “Protecting confidential sources is paramount in journalism. I ensure their anonymity by not revealing their identities, even to my colleagues or superiors.

I use encrypted communication channels for sensitive information exchange and avoid discussing these matters where conversations can be overheard.

In case of legal pressures, I am prepared to uphold journalistic ethics and protect the source’s confidentiality.

Moreover, I educate my sources on how to share information securely and anonymously.

These measures help maintain trust with sources while ensuring their safety.”

23. How familiar are you with media law and ethics?

This question is asked to gauge your knowledge about the legal and ethical aspects of the journalism profession. In the world of journalism, it’s important to understand the potential legal implications of your work, such as defamation, privacy issues, and copyright infringement. Ethical considerations are equally significant, including maintaining accuracy, fairness, impartiality, and protecting sources. A journalist who is well-versed in these areas is more likely to produce work that maintains the integrity of the publication and the trust of its readers.

Example: “I have a solid understanding of media law and ethics, having studied them extensively during my journalism degree. I am aware of the importance of accuracy, fairness, and integrity in reporting, as well as respecting privacy and confidentiality.

In terms of media law, I’m familiar with issues such as defamation, contempt of court, copyright infringement, and the right to fair comment. I understand that these laws are crucial for maintaining ethical standards and protecting individuals’ rights.

Ethically, I recognize the need to balance public interest with respect for individual privacy. I also know how important it is to disclose any conflicts of interest and maintain transparency. This knowledge will guide me in producing responsible and trustworthy content.”

24. Share an instance where you had to adapt your writing style to fit a specific audience.

Journalism isn’t a one-size-fits-all profession. Different audiences have different needs, preferences, and levels of understanding. It’s crucial for a journalist to be able to adapt their writing style to effectively connect with and inform their audience. By asking this question, hiring managers can assess your adaptability, empathy, and understanding of diverse audiences—all of which are critical skills in the ever-changing world of journalism.

Example: “In one instance, I was tasked with writing an article for a health and wellness magazine targeted at seniors. Recognizing that this demographic might not be familiar with certain medical jargon, I adapted my writing style to be more conversational and less technical. I also incorporated real-life examples to make complex concepts easier to understand. This approach ensured the content was engaging, accessible, and valuable to our readers.”

25. How do you handle situations where your personal beliefs conflict with the story you’re covering?

Journalism is a field that requires an unwavering commitment to objectivity and fairness. This question is designed to gauge your ability to put aside personal biases and report the facts of a story, even when it might be challenging. It’s about ensuring your commitment to ethical journalism and your ability to provide balanced, accurate information to the public.

Example: “As a journalist, it’s crucial to maintain objectivity and impartiality. If my personal beliefs conflict with a story I’m covering, I would continue to report the facts accurately and fairly. It’s not about promoting my perspective but providing balanced coverage.

I believe in separating my personal biases from my professional responsibilities. This approach ensures that readers receive unbiased information, which is vital for their understanding of the issue at hand.

In journalism, ethics take precedence over personal feelings. Upholding these principles is part of our responsibility as journalists.”

26. What strategies would you use to increase reader engagement with our magazine’s online content?

As the media landscape evolves, it’s essential for journalists to not only produce compelling content, but also to understand how to engage readers. This question is designed to assess your knowledge of digital journalism techniques, from SEO optimization to social media promotion, and your ability to use them to boost readership and engagement. This shows the interviewer that you can contribute to the growth and success of the magazine in a digital environment.

Example: “To increase reader engagement, I would suggest incorporating interactive elements like quizzes or polls. This can stimulate active participation and make the content more engaging.

Using multimedia such as videos, infographics, or podcasts can also enhance the user experience. They add a dynamic element that text alone cannot provide.

Social media is another powerful tool. Regularly posting snippets of our content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram can attract more readers to our site.

Lastly, ensuring our content is SEO-optimized will help increase visibility in search results, attracting new readers and encouraging existing ones to engage more deeply with our content.”

27. Which journalists or publications inspire your work and why?

You’re being asked this question because your inspirations can say a lot about the kind of journalist you are or aspire to be. Are you inspired by hard-hitting investigative reporters? Humorous columnists? Long-form feature writers? Your answer can tell them about your interests, your values, and the kind of work you might produce for their publication.

Example: “I am greatly inspired by The New Yorker for its in-depth reporting and unique storytelling. I admire how they balance hard-hitting journalism with engaging narratives, which is something I strive to incorporate into my work.

Another source of inspiration is journalist Christiane Amanpour. Her fearless pursuit of truth, regardless of the danger or difficulty involved, motivates me to be bold and relentless in my own reporting. She embodies journalistic integrity and courage, qualities I aim to emulate.”

28. Have you ever had to retract or correct a published article? How did you manage it?

Mistakes happen, even in journalism. But the ability to recognize, admit, and correct mistakes is a sign of integrity and professionalism. This question helps interviewers gauge your ability to handle criticism, admit errors, and take necessary corrective actions. It also helps them understand whether you can maintain transparency and trust with your readers, which are essential attributes in the field of journalism.

Example: “Yes, I have experienced a situation where an article published contained some factual errors. Upon realizing the mistake, it was crucial to act swiftly and transparently. I immediately informed my editor about the issue. We decided to publish a correction in the next issue, acknowledging our error publicly. Online, we updated the article with correct information and added a note at the end explaining the changes made. It was a learning experience that reinforced the importance of thorough fact-checking before publication.”

29. Tell us about a time when you successfully worked under pressure to deliver breaking news.

The fast-paced world of journalism often requires quick thinking and an ability to perform under pressure. With this question, interviewers want to assess your ability to gather information, make quick decisions, and deliver quality work within tight deadlines. They’re interested in how you handle stress, maintain accuracy in your reporting, and still manage to deliver compelling stories amidst the rush.

Example: “In one instance, I was assigned to cover a high-profile tech conference. During the event, an unexpected announcement about a revolutionary product launch was made.

Understanding the urgency of delivering this news to our readers, I quickly gathered all the necessary details and quotes from key spokespeople. Despite the pressure, I managed to write a comprehensive yet concise article that captured the essence of the announcement within a tight deadline.

The piece was published promptly, making our magazine one of the first to break the story. This experience demonstrated my ability to work efficiently under pressure while maintaining accuracy and journalistic integrity.”

30. How have you used data analytics tools to track the performance of your articles?

The landscape of journalism has changed drastically with the advent of digital media. Nowadays, it’s not just about crafting compelling stories, but also about understanding how your audience interacts with your content. This question is asked to assess your familiarity with modern data analytics tools and your ability to use them to gauge reader engagement and make data-driven decisions about your writing.

Example: “I’ve utilized tools like Google Analytics to track metrics such as page views, bounce rates, and average time spent on my articles. This data helps me understand how engaging the content is for readers.

Moreover, I’ve used social media analytics to see which articles are shared most often, indicating reader interest and relevance of topics.

Lastly, SEO tools have been beneficial in tracking keyword rankings. This information informs if my articles are reaching the intended audience through search engines. These insights guide my future writing and topic selection.”

30 Roller Operator Interview Questions and Answers

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How the Work of Agnes Martin Inspired Victoria Chang’s New Book of Poems

By jamie hood, april 10, 2024.

Victoria Chang photographed by Pat Cray.

I’ve yet to connect with the paintings of Agnes Martin . I’m a cheap date—pitifully drawn to the figurative, and, until now, sort of alienated by Martin’s abstract assemblages of lines, bands, stripes, and grids. Recently, I confessed as much to the poet Victoria Chang, whose seventh collection, With My Back to the World , is a dialogue toward Martin’s life and art, as well as a meditation on solitude, loneliness, depression, and spectacle. Like I did, Chang harmonized first with Martin’s writings and her story—the silent child; the solitary woman; the artist who fled fame in New York to live off the grid—before finding herself astonished by Martin’s work.

I first encountered Chang’s poetry with the publication of 2017’s Barbie Chang . But, like a lot of readers, what hooked me was her landmark series of lyric obituaries (gathered in 2020’s OBIT ), which hit like a bomb a few weeks into lockdown. Despite their highly particular elegies—mourning subjects like Chang’s father’s frontal lobe, his gait, her mother’s logic, and language itself—the poems seemed to me to hold a mirror to our collective terror and trauma in that period of uncertainty and global loss.

In her latest book, Chang’s gaze travels further out—toward Martin and New Mexico, to the limitless skies above Wyoming and On Kawara’s sense of time, into a place where the “first person ran / away like a horse”—in order to dive deeper inward. “I’ve wanted,” she writes, “to be the painting, not the painter.” Sometimes, of course, we don’t get to choose. Shortly before her book’s publication, on one of the first clear days of spring, we met over Zoom.

JAMIE HOOD: Hi, Victoria. How are you?

VICTORIA CHANG: I’m doing well. How about you?

HOOD: Good. It’s nice to meet you.

CHANG: You too. Where are you based?

HOOD: I’m in Brooklyn. You just got in?

CHANG: I just got in and am just giddy at the weather. You must be so happy today.

HOOD: I know, it’s finally gorgeous here! I wanted to start with the origin story of the book. You mentioned that one was Agnes Martin’s On a Clear Day. 1973 , which was commissioned by MoMA. Where did this book begin and when did you know you were writing it?

CHANG: I love the origin stories of any creative project. And I love thinking about how people start different series. That is fascinating to me. The MoMA asked me to write a poem on anything in their whole museum. I tried looking around on their site, but I just got overwhelmed, and so then I reversed my thinking and thought, well, “What artists would be interesting?” I had read Agnes Martin’s writings a long time ago. It’s a book that’s really hard to find. There are many things that she wrote about that resonated with me because she has this very Buddhist mindset. That’s my relationship with life and art and poetry, too. Then I remembered that she had left New York. She’d become more and more well-known. She just gave her paintbrushes away, and said, “Give these to some younger people who might need them.” I just loved that instinct. I picked On a Clear Day . Then, once I wrote that poem, I just felt like, “Wow, my relationship with this visual art is so different than it used to be.” Then I just kept on going. I did a ton of research on her work and tried to see her work as much as I could.

HOOD: I feel like there are several people right now writing about Agnes Martin. Did you read JoAnna Novak’s book Contradiction Days ?

CHANG: No, I haven’t read it, but I met her once a long time ago. She had been working on this book of prose that was also [about] her relationship with Agnes Martin. We must’ve been working on it at the same time. And then a long time ago, my friend Brian Teare wrote a book of poems talking to Agnes Martin and her pieces. I think that’s what really amazing art does. It’s like, this big door that everyone can enter. And no one owns that work. From my understanding, JoAnna Novak is writing about it through motherhood. I’m a mother, but I’m so beyond those early years. I have teenagers, so I’m at a different phase in my life, and that’s how I connect with her work and her grids.

HOOD: As you were in the process of writing, how did the relationship with Agnes Martin morph? I’m very fascinated by process. I’m also thinking about the way that the book ends with this unsettling encounter with a man who stands next to you in front of one of the paintings and you’re seeing yourself in the reflection in the glass. He shows up and then he speaks and the voice is Agnes’s. Obviously, she’s the central interlocutor in the book. But you’re not engaging at a remove.

CHANG: Totally. I just read everything I could and looked at everything I could, got really clear and beautiful colored plates of her work, read all the books, all the biographies. I saved the video of her talking and painting until the very end. I just wanted to have my imagination of what she was like and build that relationship with her. When I finally watched that film where she’s painting and talking at the same time, I remember bursting into tears. I had built up this very intimate and private and personal relationship with her, her writing, and her visual art. By the time I actually met her in body and in voice, I was very connected with her. I don’t know if anyone else would say this about me, but I’ve always felt that there’s a lot of performance when you’re building relationships with people. I love having these relationships where it’s not with a real person and I can immerse myself in that relationship and conversation. I really felt like I needed someone to talk to. 

HOOD: I think that’s what drew me to writing. And it’s true for so many artists, this connection to art that almost supersedes or supplants the social. Importantly, this is also a book about depression. At times you’re talking about solitude and loneliness as separate things, and sometimes they become conflated with and bound up in this depressive feeling. You mentioned that, at times, you connect with art more than you do with people.

CHANG: It’s funny, I didn’t really know how depressed I was until I started writing these poems. Then I said to myself, “Well, don’t skirt around these issues, just write the word down.” I forced myself to write that word down “depression,” and once I did, I just found myself not afraid to write it again and again. I didn’t feel embarrassed or ashamed about it anymore. A lot of us experience extreme sadness many times in our lives. And for some people, it’s a constant thread throughout their lives. For me, this particular time was way worse than it normally is, because of all the caretaking that I had been doing for my parents who were so ill for so long. And then, I was reaching a different chemical stage in my bodily life that was surprising. I didn’t even understand what was happening. One of my friends was like, “Hey, are you okay?” He said he felt the book was really, really dark. I had forgotten that it was so dark, or I didn’t think of it as being dark. It was so cathartic and intellectually stimulating to explore the topic of depression through the work of Agnes Martin. 

HOOD: To my sense, your last four books work in a cycle, but With My Back to the World feels as if it’s departing from those themes. One of the things I found so fascinating about what you’re doing here is talking about what language itself does and how it connects, for example, to depression, to solitariness, to loneliness. This book is so much about form and what poetry does, how it does it, and what it’s good for.

CHANG: And also what it can’t do. Language is so unsatisfactory. You can’t really ever get to the thing that you’re feeling with language. You can get as close as you can. I experienced this when I was trying to write about my mother’s death and my grief. I just knew I was not able to succeed. I tried again and again and again and again through those little obituaries. So this book is trying to talk about the inadequacies of language. In many ways, Agnes Martin’s pieces are writing. It’s a form of scratching on paper in the same way that I’m scratching on paper. It’s just that her language is the grid or the band or color. 

HOOD: As writers, I think we must speak to those insufficiencies, particularly in so politically polarized and precarious a moment. There’s an idea that you always have to be absolutely immovable in your opinions, and if anyone challenges you, you double down and argue your way further into that hole. It’s very difficult to admit to the gaps.

CHANG: And in fact, maybe not knowing is a form of knowing. I was just talking to my friend about this yesterday. He said, “I’m really not sure poetry is always the best place for certainty or righteousness.” And I was like, “I totally agree.” I think poetry and art are navigating the unknown and the inadequacies of knowledge. It’s the opposite of knowledge. It’s not knowing what you’re going to say before you say it, it’s not knowing where you’re going to arrive when you’re done. It’s about discovery, not certainty. It’s a really difficult time, for me, as an artist, because I find the certainty in people’s stances about everything, even things I totally agree with, creeping into their art. For me, that’s the opposite of art. I don’t know anything. And by the time I’m done, I’m still not going to know anything, but I feel really joyful about the process of imagination and creation. I have no issue with everybody else and how they decide to make their art or navigate the literary world. But this is where I’d like to stay, in the space of the unknown and the uncertain.

HOOD: Art as the place where you get to to defamiliarize yourself, to have an experience of unknowingness.

CHANG: Absolutely. Destabilize yourself and surprise yourself through language. 

HOOD: I was talking to my therapist about this recently. When the writing is really good, it disorients and displaces you. There’s something about the way your encounter with art is or should be about a removal from or a distortion of ego.

CHANG: When you’re writing about yourself and the work, you fundamentally understand that you’re not transcribing your experience, you’re actually distorting the experience. That’s when the art gets interesting. If you go in with the idea that you’re just there to depict, replicate, and delineate your experience, I find that to be uninteresting. That’s why people can work on their art, whatever it is, and feel like they’re underwater for the whole day. 15 hours have passed and nothing mattered but being in that space of creation and writing. I get the most excited when I have no idea what time is anymore.

HOOD: In your poem “Today,” you write,  “I heard my own voice describing my fall onto a knob, how I lost my left eye, how I refused to die. And then I saw myself bend over to look at me. My own hand grabbed my hand, but I couldn’t feel it or move my eye. I saw myself for who I was; evil, full of syllables. Poets are useless.” That last bit–”poets are useless”–is borrowed from H.D.’s experimental epic Trilogy. Her reading, I think, is couched in irony, but yours feels more earnest, and also more resigned. I was wondering, in your sense, what is the use value of poetry? Should it have a use value? 

CHANG: For me, poetry is naturally political because it’s a form of agency, it’s an utterance. But that’s where my idea of poetry ends. Rita Dove said, “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.” Audre Lorde said, “Poetry is the skeleton architecture of our lives.” And Gwendolyn Brooks said, “Poetry is life distilled.” Mahmoud Darwish said, “I see poetry as spiritual medicine.” There are so many of these definitions of poetry, which just tells me that it’s literally undefinable. For me, it’s the only way to get at our life experience and what we’re feeling inside. I think that all art forms do that, but there’s something about poetry, the economy of language, that isn’t really like anything else. It’s trying to use the fewest words to get at the biggest emotions. I was reading Sylvia Plath on the way in because I’m teaching a class shortly. She’s amazing. She’s very practical. She’s a thesaurus. She just sat with a little thesaurus looking at words. In her poems from the end of her life, she didn’t use the thesaurus, but I think the thesaurus was already in her body. She just was a word lover. She was very interested in putting really weird words right next to each other. That, to me, is poetry.

HOOD: I saw you announce the Sylvia Path class, which of course I was thrilled about. I feel like she’s one of those literary godmothers people want you  to be really embarrassed about, but I love Plath. At the end of her life, you see that economy of language. It cuts like a knife. I could just talk about Plath all day. 

CHANG: Me too.

HOOD: I was also thinking about the idea of witness and bearing witness. Jumping back to where we started, On a Clear Day , the commission by MoMA, is also a poem that is partly about the 2021 shootings at the Atlanta spas. You’re not particularly explicit about these events, but they  run through a number of the poems. The  book is also reckoning with spectacularity, being seen, the pleasure and also the danger of it.

CHANG: We’re in that culture now, for better or for worse. I find that to be so bizarre. I think hiding is very difficult in our culture, and yet we put our work out there in the form of a book. In poetry, it’s more attention than what you expected, and then everyone’s staring at you. I’m just the electric wire or conduit the poems traveled through. Yet today, we all want to be seen and looked at. But then I’m like, “Well, what is the cost of being seen and heard?” I think this book is also very feminist. What does it mean to be a person that looks like me? And what’s my relationship with being seen? When I was younger, being seen was a terrible thing. I was totally bullied in the white community that I grew up in, so lurking around and hiding around corners was my preferred way of being. Now everybody wants you to say something about everything. And if you don’t say something about everything, then somehow you’re a bad person.

HOOD: That was exactly why I was drawn to literature and writing, because I’ve always found it difficult to present myself socially. Writing was a way of doing that.

CHANG: That’s right. If you have attention, it’s a positive thing. If your book gets attention, it’s a great thing. And it’s just so bizarre because it never feels that great. It never quite lives up to what you’re supposed to feel because your anxiety is just heightened. Writing is the main way in which I feel like I can survive. And it’s actually the main way I am able to live. And I think if I didn’t write, I don’t know how I would live. That’s my relationship with writing. When I’m not making things, I start to feel like my life is meaningless, and then I start to feel very unmoored. I know a lot of people who aren’t this way. They find joy in other aspects of life. For me, this is it.

HOOD: I feel the same way.

CHANG: I think a lot of us do. It saves us.

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Top Democrats won't join calls for Justice Sotomayor to retire, but they still fear a Ruth Bader Ginsburg repeat

WASHINGTON — Democratic senators are not joining calls on the left for liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire . But for the first time, they’re publicly expressing an unease that history could repeat itself after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s refusal to step down in 2014 ended in the Supreme Court lurching sharply to the right.

Ginsburg, then 81 and a cancer survivor, could have retired and been replaced by a Democratic appointee when President Barack Obama was in office and his party controlled 55 Senate seats. She rejected the calls — and died in September 2020, allowing then-President Donald Trump to replace her.

It was a history-making moment: Ginsburg’s successor, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, gave rise to a 6-3 conservative majority . Barrett went on to cast a deciding vote to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights ruling less than two years later.

With that humbling history in mind, some liberal commentators say Sotomayor — who is 69, a lifelong diabetic and the oldest member of the court’s liberal wing — should retire while Joe Biden is president and Democrats control the Senate, echoing similar calls directed at Ginsburg a decade ago that went unheeded.

Democratic senators who serve on the Judiciary Committee remain haunted by the Ginsburg precedent. None are publicly calling on Sotomayor to step down, but they say they hope it doesn’t happen again and create a 7-2 conservative majority.

“I’m very respectful of Justice Sotomayor. I have great admiration for her. But I think she really has to weigh the competing factors,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “We should learn a lesson. And it’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be. The old saying — graveyards are full of indispensable people, ourselves in this body included.”

Blumenthal emphasized that Sotomayor is “a highly accomplished and, obviously, fully functioning justice right now.” He added that “justices have to make their personal decisions about their health, and their level of energy, but also to keep in mind the larger national and public interest in making sure that the court looks and thinks like America.”

Senator: Ginsburg 'might have rethought' it

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, the No. 2 Democrat on the committee, said he hasn’t given much thought to Sotomayor’s future and is “not joining any calls” for her to leave the court.

But he warned that if the six-member Republican majority were to grow, it would further empower the court's “extremist wing.” Occasionally, he said, a couple of conservative justices “hold themselves back” and contain the scope of the court’s rulings.

“Run it to 7-2 and you go from a captured court to a full MAGA court,” Whitehouse said in an interview. “Certainly I think if Justice Ginsburg had it to do over again, she might have rethought her confidence in her own health.”

But Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, said she’s “not going to be talking about anybody choosing to retire” when asked about Sotomayor.

Others are less shy about pointedly calling on Sotomayor to vacate her seat. There has been a flurry of op-eds on the issue and some law professors and legal advocacy groups have similarly weighed in.

“This isn’t personal. This isn’t about one individual justice," said Molly Coleman, executive director of the progressive People’s Parity Project. "It’s nothing to do with what an incredible legal talent Justice Sotomayor is. It’s about what’s in the best interests of the country moving forward.”

Asked about the liberals calling on Sotomayor to retire, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said: “President Biden believes that decisions to retire from the Supreme Court should be made by the justices themselves and no one else.”

To some liberals, the reluctance of elected officials to call on Sotomayor to step aside is confounding.

“All the people in the liberal legal community are putting hurting Sonia’s feelings ahead of the prospect of a 7-2 court. Insane,” said one Democrat who has worked on judicial nominations and is prohibited from speaking publicly about the justices. “So they don’t say anything about her retiring when they all think she should.”

Sotomayor hasn't signaled any plans to go

The calls involving Sotomayor come at a perilous moment for Democrats, as polls show Biden is far from certain to beat Trump in their rematch. The party currently controls 51 Senate seats, but faces a daunting challenge to keep the majority, defending three seats in the red states of West Virginia, Montana and Ohio and five more in purple states in November's elections. Even if Biden wins re-election, losing the Senate would give Republicans an effective veto over liberal nominees.

There are obvious differences between the Ginsburg and Sotomayor situations. In 2014, Ginsburg was 12 years older than Sotomayor is now. Ginsburg, in 2014, had served on the court for 21 years. Sotomayor will reach her 15-year milestone in August.

There are no signs that Sotomayor has any plans to step down. She remains an active questioner during Supreme Court arguments. Some commentators, however, seized on recent remarks made during an appearance in California , when she said she was “tired” and working harder than ever.

“And to be almost 70 years old, this wasn’t what I expected,” she said, according to Bloomberg Law.

Her health has also been subject to scrutiny, mostly because of her diabetes.  

Sotomayor, via a court spokeswoman, did not respond to a request for comment.

Even some of those who urged Ginsburg to step down a decade ago are holding fire on Sotomayor, including Erwin Chemerinsky, an influential liberal law professor who is the dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law.

In 2014, Chemerinsky wrote a much-discussed article saying that Ginsburg’s refusal to step down “could end up hurting her legal legacy on the court.”

Now, citing Sotomayor’s age, Chemerinsky sees no such urgency.

“I think that is a significant difference and do not see a basis for calling for Justice Sotomayor to retire at this time,” he said in an email.

While the long-term impact could be huge, Sotomayor's choice is not as immediately pivotal. Even if she leaves this year and is replaced by a Democratic nominee, it would merely shore up a liberal minority that lacks the votes to move the court to the left without the buy-in of at least two conservative colleagues.

'Life is pretty good for a retired justice'

Melissa Murray, a professor at New York University School of Law and a former Sotomayor law clerk, said the justice remains “very robust” and has given no indications of retiring.

“She’s never said anything to me. She’s never said anything publicly,” she added.

That is in stark contrast to Ginsburg, who in 2014 responded to the resignation calls with defiance.

“So tell me who the president could have nominated this spring that you would rather see on the court than me?” she told Reuters .

Blumenthal said that justices shouldn’t fear retirement.

“Life is pretty good for a retired justice,” he said. “They continue to sit on cases, they get paid on par with what they’ve received before. She’s a highly respected intellect and figure with a great record of accomplishments. So she would have a lot of opportunities for continued public service.”

On the other side of the aisle, 90-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he wouldn’t call on a justice to retire. He will be 95 when his current Senate term ends.

“Everybody’s got to make that personal decision,” Grassley said. “And I wouldn’t comment on it for somebody else, because that’s their decision. Just like it’s my decision to run for re-election.”

Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

Lawrence Hurley covers the Supreme Court for NBC News.

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Why Did This Guy Put a Song About Me on Spotify?

The answer involves a remarkable — and lucrative, and ridiculous — scheme to game the way we find music today.

Matt Farley has released thousands of songs with the goal of producing a result to match nearly anything anybody could think to search for. Credit... Chris Buck for The New York Times

Supported by

By Brett Martin

Brett Martin is a contributing writer for the magazine. For this story, he traveled to Massachusetts to meet the writer of the song “Brett Martin, You a Nice Man, Yes.”

• Published March 31, 2024 Updated April 1, 2024

I don’t want to make this all about me, but have you heard the song “Brett Martin, You a Nice Man, Yes” ?

I guess probably not. On Spotify, “Brett Martin, You a Nice Man, Yes” has not yet accumulated enough streams to even register a tally, despite an excessive number of plays in at least one household that I can personally confirm. Even I, the titular Nice Man, didn’t hear the 1 minute 14 second song until last summer, a full 11 years after it was uploaded by an artist credited as Papa Razzi and the Photogs. I like to think this is because of a heroic lack of vanity, though it may just be evidence of very poor search skills.

Listen to this article, read by Eric Jason Martin

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When I did stumble on “Brett Martin, You a Nice Man, Yes,” I naturally assumed it was about a different, more famous Brett Martin: perhaps Brett Martin, the left-handed reliever who until recently played for the Texas Rangers; or Brett Martin, the legendary Australian squash player; or even Clara Brett Martin, the Canadian who in 1897 became the British Empire’s first female lawyer. Only when the singer began referencing details of stories that I made for public radio’s “This American Life” almost 20 years ago did I realize it actually was about me. The song ended, “I really like you/Will you be my friend?/Will you call me on the phone?” Then it gave a phone number, with a New Hampshire area code.

So, I called.

It’s possible that I dialed with outsize expectations. The author of this song, whoever he was, had been waiting 11 long years as his message in a bottle bobbed on the digital seas. Now, at long last, here I was! I spent serious time thinking about how to open the conversation, settling on what I imagined was something simple but iconic, on the order of “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.” After one ring, a male voice answered.

I said: “This is Brett Martin. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to call.”

The man had no idea who I was.

“You have to understand,” he said, apologetically. “I’ve written over 24,000 songs. I wrote 50 songs yesterday.”

And thus was I ushered into the strange universe of Matt Farley.

Farley is 45 and lives with his wife, two sons and a cockapoo named Pippi in Danvers, Mass., on the North Shore. For the past 20 years, he has been releasing album after album of songs with the object of producing a result to match nearly anything anybody could think to search for. These include hundreds of songs name-checking celebrities from the very famous to the much less so. He doesn’t give out his phone number in all of them, but he does spread it around enough that he gets several calls or texts a week. Perhaps sensing my deflation, he assured me that very few came from the actual subject of a song. He told me the director Dennis Dugan (of “Dennis Dugan, I Like Your Movies Very A Lot,” part of an 83-song album about movie directors) called once, but he didn’t realize who it was until too late, and the conversation was awkward.

Freed from the blinding incandescence of my own name, I could suddenly see the extent of what I had stumbled into. It was like the scene in a thriller when the detective first gazes on the wall of a serial killer’s lair. Papa Razzi and the Photogs is only one of about 80 pseudonyms Farley uses to release his music. As the Hungry Food Band, he sings songs about foods. As the Guy Who Sings Songs About Cities & Towns, he sings the atlas. He has 600 songs inviting different-named girls to the prom and 500 that are marriage proposals. He has an album of very specific apologies; albums devoted to sports teams in every city that has a sports team; hundreds of songs about animals, and jobs, and weather, and furniture, and one band that is simply called the Guy Who Sings Your Name Over and Over.

He also has many, many songs about going to the bathroom. If you have a child under 10 with access to the internet, it is very likely you know some part of this body of work. What he refers to collectively as his “poop songs” are mostly released under two names: the Toilet Bowl Cleaners and the Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke and Pee.

“The Odd Man is more shameless,” he explained. “The Toilet Bowl Cleaners are making statements with their albums,” though the distinction between the former’s “Butt Cheeks Butt Cheeks Butt Cheeks!” and the latter’s “I Need a Lot of Toilet Paper to Clean the Poop in My Butt” may be subtler than he imagines.

Largely, though not entirely, on the strength of such songs, Farley has managed to achieve that most elusive of goals: a decent living creating music. In 2008, his search-engine optimization project took in $3,000; four years later, it had grown to $24,000. The introduction of Alexa and her voice-activated sistren opened up the theretofore underserved nontyping market, in particular the kind fond of shouting things like “Poop in my fingernails!” at the computer. “Poop in My Fingernails,” by the Toilet Bowl Cleaners, currently has over 4.4 million streams on Spotify alone. To date, that “band,” and the Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke and Pee, have collectively brought in approximately $469,000 from various platforms. They are by far Farley’s biggest earners, but not the only ones: Papa Razzi and the Photogs has earned $41,000; the Best Birthday Song Band Ever, $38,000; the Guy Who Sings Your Name Over and Over, $80,000. Dozens of others have taken in two, three or four digits: the New Orleans Sports Band, the Chicago Sports Band, the Singing Film Critic, the Great Weather Song Person, the Paranormal Song Warrior, the Motern Media Holiday Singers, who perform 70 versions of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” substituting contemporary foods for figgy pudding. It adds up. Farley quit his day job in 2017.

“People like to criticize the whole streaming thing, but there’s really a lot of pros to it,” he said. Indeed, in 2023, his music earned him just shy of $200,000, about one halfpenny at a time.

‘If you reject your own ideas, then the part of the brain that comes up with ideas is going to stop. You just do it and do it and do it, and you sort it out later.’

Farley’s earnings help fund his multiple other creative endeavors. He records what he calls his “no jokes” music. This includes a two-man band he’s been in since college called Moes Haven, which once recorded an album a day for a year. He hosts two podcasts, one about his work and the other recapping Celtics games. And he makes movies: microbudgeted, determinedly amateur but nevertheless recognizably cinematic features starring himself and his family and friends. (They feature a spectacular array of New England accents.) In most, Farley plays some version of himself, a mild-mannered, eccentric hero projecting varying degrees of menace. Farley and his college friend Charlie Roxburgh are in the midst of a project in which they have resolved to release two full movies per year. The model, Farley said, was inspired by Hallmark Movies: “If this movie stinks, good news, we’re making another in six months!” Their most popular work remains “Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You!” (2012), a charmingly shaggy tale of a cryptid threatening a small New England town. It features Farley’s father as a big-game hunter named Ito Hootkins.

Like many of Farley’s endeavors, his films have attracted a small but intense following. “I could fill a 5,000-seat arena, if I could only get everybody in one place,” he says. His is the kind of obsessive project that seems to inspire the same from others. A few years ago, Leor Galil, a Chicago music writer, set out to listen to Farley’s entire corpus, from start to finish, chronicling the journey in a zine titled Freaky 4 Farley. Four pages into Issue 1, he had already taken on the grim tone of an Arctic explorer. “I’ve become a little tired of the album 25 songs in,” he wrote, “which makes me concerned about my ability to get through the rest of this listening quest.” Issue 2 begins, “I failed.”

The umbrella name that Farley uses for all his outputs is Motern. He made the word up; or rather, he seized on what he felt was its strange power after misspelling the word “intern” in what he had planned to be a 10,000-page novel. To Farley, creativity has always been a volume business. That, in fact, is the gist of “The Motern Method,” a 136-page manifesto on creativity that he self-published in 2021. His theory is that every idea, no matter its apparent value, must be honored and completed. An idea thwarted is an insult to the muse and is punished accordingly.

“If you reject your own ideas, then the part of the brain that comes up with ideas is going to stop,” he said. “You just do it and do it and do it, and you sort it out later.” Or, as the case may be, you don’t, but rather send it all out into the abyss, hoping that someday, somebody, somewhere will hear it.

I was aware, of course, that on some level I’d been had, the one tiny fish vain enough to be snared in Farley’s trawl. It left me a bit paranoid. “Charlie Roxburgh” suddenly seemed like such a perfect Boston pseudonym that I spent a day investigating whether he was a real person. (He’s real, lives in Connecticut and makes corporate videos for his day job.) I lost another day chasing after a Letterboxd commenter who goes by the handle dcs577 and was so baffled by the popularity of Farley’s movies that he published his own short e-book, “The Not Motern Method.” It urges readers to give up on their artistic dreams, and even mimics Farley’s buckshot S.E.O., by appearing in multiple, slightly different versions. Surely he had to be a Farley alter ego. (Nope: a 36-year-old movie buff in Missouri.)

Mostly I was trying to figure out whether I thought Farley was a bad guy. Did his scheme represent the inevitable cynical end product of a culture in the grips of algorithmic platforms? Or might it be a delightful side effect? Was his work spam or a kind of outsider art? Was he just the Poop Song Guy, or was he closer to Steve Keene, the Brooklyn-based, Gen-X-hipster-approved painter of over 300,000 works who has been the subject of books and museum retrospectives? As it happens, Farley has a song about Steve Keene. It’s on a Papa Razzi album titled “I Am Not Wasting My Life,” which suggested he was asking some of the same questions.

When I went to Danvers to meet Farley in December, it became quickly apparent that he is the most transparent person in the world. He’s got a thick head of hair, high cheekbones and a friendly, Kyle Chandler-like face that another Letterboxd reviewer correctly identified as “youth-pastory.” When he picked me up at my hotel, he was wearing a fleece-lined brown hoodie that, judging by social media, is the only outer layer he wears throughout the New England winter — including on the 15-to-20 mile walks he takes twice a week. He struck me as the kind of guy who wears shorts the moment it gets above 48 degrees. Compulsively early, he confessed that he arrived at the lobby an hour before we were scheduled to meet.

You might mistake Motern’s aesthetic for stoner humor, but Farley says he has never had a sip of alcohol, much less done drugs. By his own description, he eats like a picky 12-year-old. When I made him take me to a restaurant in Salem called Dube’s Seafood, famed for its belly clams, he ordered chicken nuggets and buried them beneath a blizzard of salt and ground pepper, removing the top of the pepper shaker to pour it on more directly. In the car we listened to the Rolling Stones, the Replacements, Tom Waits. “It’s a mammoth accomplishment of self-control for me not to be playing my own music right now,” he said, though his efforts at restraint were puzzling, given that I was in all likelihood the one person on Earth at that moment whose job was to listen to it.

All of Farley’s life he has wanted to make things and have people see and hear them. After going to school at Providence College, he moved to Manchester, N.H., specifically because he knew nobody there who might distract him. “If you know people, they want you to go to cookouts,” he says. “I designed my entire life to not have to go to cookouts.” Even now, he cannot abide downtime; to him, the wasted time of a party or watching a football game is measured in songs or scripts he could have written. At no point did Farley consider a more conventional route such as film school or a low-level job in the entertainment industry. Instead, he took a job at a group home for teenagers, knocking out a 40-hour week in three days so that he could work on music and movies the other four. He would leave Moes Haven CDs in public places across Manchester, hoping somebody would pick them up; he slipped them into the stacks at local record stores, like a reverse shoplifter. He would drive people to the airport just so he could force his music on them on the way.

Farley’s persona is simultaneously grandiose — “I really do think I’m the greatest songwriter of the 21st Century,” he told me — and knowingly self-effacing. One night, I went with him to a tiny independent theater in Lexington for a screening of the Motern film “Magic Spot,” a time-travel comedy. On the drive down, I asked what the endgame for the movies was. Obviously, they have a very different business model from his music. What if somebody gave him, say, a million dollars to make his next movie? He thought for a second.

“Three-hundred-thousand for me and Charlie, spread the rest around to the people who have helped us all these years, make a $10,000 movie and get sued,” he said. (That would be about twice the budget of a typical Motern joint.)

“Magic Spot” wasn’t on the marquee when we pulled up, but there was a flier taped to the door. “We couldn’t afford color copies, but we did our best,” the theater owner said as he let us in. There were 11 people in the audience, including Farley’s father and brother-in-law, both of whom were in the movie. There was also a film student named Taylor, who had driven up from the Cape and would end up seeing three Motern screenings within a month, and two guys down from Manchester, one of whom was turning the other on to the Farley canon. A few minutes into the movie, the sound went out, and we sat for about 10 minutes while Farley frantically tried to fix it. He was on the verge of jury-rigging a solution involving holding a microphone to his laptop when the sound system miraculously healed itself.

“A huge success! I’m on cloud nine,” he said, as we headed back toward Danvers. After the show, he refused to accept his share of the ticket sales, instead pressing extra money into the owner’s hands as thanks.

For somebody so driven to find an audience and so immune to embarrassment, the advent of the digital age was a miracle. Farley began uploading the Moes Haven catalog to iTunes when it came out, and then to Spotify. As described in the closely autobiographical Motern film “Local Legends,” Moes Haven was intended to “meld the sounds of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Pink Floyd, into a musical concoction that was going to blow the minds of millions of fans all the way around the world.” As it turned out, Farley noticed that the only song that seemed to blow minds, or at least get downloaded, was a comic throwaway called “Shut Up Your Monkey.” (“Get down/Get funky/Shut up/Your monkey.”)

“Some people would have quit right there,” he says. “I saw an opportunity.”

Whatever the dubious value of any individual song in the Farley universe, it’s as part of the enormous body of the whole, the magnum opus, that it gains power.

A lot of energy has been spent trying to pick the lock of the recommendation algorithms that can make or break a song on Spotify and other streaming services. Any number of online courses, distributors and publishing companies promise to navigate the labyrinth of inputs — playlist inclusion, natural language processing, average length of listens, influencer attention, metrics like “acousticness,” “speechiness” and “danceability” — that will push a song onto millions of users’ recommended playlists. Critics, meanwhile, bemoan the rise of bands like Greta Van Fleet, an “algorithmic fever dream” according to Pitchfork, who seem to be engineered to be the Next Song after whatever it was you actually chose to listen to.

When I asked Farley how much of this he factors into his work, the answer was “almost zero.” He gets the sense that longer titles seem to work better than short ones and that around a minute and a half is a good minimum length. But for the most part, his is a blunt-force attack on the softer target of search results. At its most intentionally parasitic, this includes such tracks as “A Review of ‘Exile on Main Street’” designed to be discovered by the Rolling Stones-curious. A 2013 album credited to the Passionate & Objective Jokerfan takes advantage of the fact that song titles cannot be copyrighted. Thus, “This Girl Is On Fire (Quick, Grab a Fire Extinguisher!),” “(Almost) Instant Karma” and “Searching for Sugarman,” which, unlike the more famous “Sugar Man,” by Rodriguez, is about a baker whose sugar delivery is running late. Farley says he has since sworn off these kinds of tricks.

These days, he sets himself a relatively light goal of one 50-song album a month, recorded in a spare bedroom in his house. (Fifty tracks is the limit that CD Baby, which Farley uses to distribute and manage his music, allows, a regulation that may or may not have something to do with Farley, who used to put as many as 100 on an album.) Once he reaches his quota, he begins the tedious work of checking the levels of each song, entering titles and metadata (genre, writer, length, etc.), creating an album title and cover art (nearly always a selfie) and uploading the package one song at a time.

Farley showed me a worn, green spiral notebook in which he meticulously tracks his output and earnings. From Spotify, he earns roughly a third of a cent per stream; Amazon and Apple pay slightly more on average: between a third and three-quarters of a cent. TikTok, on the other hand, pays musicians by the number of videos featuring their songs and is thus immune to Farley’s strategy; when Kris and Kylie Jenner recorded a video of themselves dancing to Farley’s song about Kris, millions of people saw it, but Farley earned less than 1 cent.

Among other topics Farley told me he planned to tackle in future albums were: colleges, household items, tools, musical instruments. I had planned to ask what categories haven’t worked, but what had become clear by then is that the idea of any one song, or even album, hitting the jackpot isn’t the point. Even after Spotify’s recent announcement that it would no longer pay royalties on songs receiving fewer than a thousand streams, Farley’s business model rests on the sheer bulk of his output. And so does his artistic model. Whatever the dubious value of any individual song in the Farley universe, it’s as part of the enormous body of the whole, the magnum opus, that it gains power. This is especially true when you consider that an artificial intelligence could conceivably produce 24,000 songs, Farley’s entire oeuvre, in about a day, a fact that gives his defiantly human, even artisanal, labor a kind of lonely Sisyphean dignity. Whatever else Farley’s work is, it is not AI — even when it barely seems to be I.

A year or two ago, Farley discovered with some chagrin that he was no longer the No. 1 result for the search “poop song.” There was another Poop Song Guy.

His name is Teddy Casey, and amazingly, he is also from a Boston suburb, Newton. That’s where the similarities with Farley stop. Casey has precisely two songs available for streaming: a sweet kids’ song about animals called “Monkey,” and “The Poop Song,” which has over four million streams across various platforms.

Casey is 55; until recently he was working as a bartender and hosting open-mic nights near where he lives in midcoast Maine. When I reached him, he was back home after a week in New Hampshire, training to become a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier. He wrote his poop song around 2009, but he didn’t get around to posting it until 2020. “It didn’t do anything for months,” he said. “And then all of a sudden, one month it made $20. I was like, Wow, cool. Buy a case of beer.”

These days, the song brings in about $1,200 per month, enough to pay his rent, Casey told me, with what sounded like a Lebowskian shrug. “I have other songs that I want to put up,” he said. “But I kind of don’t want to sell out.”

I asked if he knew about the Toilet Bowl Cleaners, and he said he’d heard a few of their songs. “I’m not making this up,” he said. “There’s this other guy, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him, the Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke and Pee. His idea was to customize every poop song. So there’s a Steven Poop song, a Bob Poop song, a Mary Poop song. He’s got hundreds!”

I told him that both bands were in fact the same person.

“Well, OK,” he said, as if realizing the full extent of what he was up against. “I like mine better, but I’m biased,” he said, finally. “You can tell he knows how to write songs, but I think he’s just been going for volume.”

In fact, I knew about the suite of songs that combine Farley’s two most successful genres — names and poop — because he was working on a new set of them when I visited him. He estimated that he had already completed about 3,000, but there were always new names.

“This can be kind of painful,” he warned, switching on his keyboard and firing up his laptop. He donned headphones, consulted a list of names and got to work. In the silence of the room, I could just hear the soft click of the keyboard and his vocals:

Jamilah, p-p-p-poop/Jamilah poop poop poop.

In “Local Legends,” which is something like Farley’s “All That Jazz,” there is a fantasy sequence in which Farley imagines the two sides of his personality arguing: one, the serious, heartfelt artist, the other a greasy record executive demanding ever more poop songs. Of course, the scene can only be a fantasy, and can only have Farley playing both characters, because the greasy record executive belongs to a lost world — one in which drastically fewer people had a chance to produce art and the work was often corrupted by corporate gatekeepers, but in which there was also a clearly marked road to an audience and a living. Farley represents both the best and worst of the incentives and opportunities that have taken this world’s place. Certainly, there are few creators working today in any medium who would not recognize the anxiety he embodies: that their work now lives or dies by the vagaries of opaque algorithms serving a bottomless menu of options to an increasingly distracted public. And that if they don’t bow to the demands of these new realities, their work — and by extension they — will simply disappear. Which is to say that while the experience of watching Farley work was not unpainful, as promised, neither was it totally unfamiliar.

After a minute and a half of “The Jamilah Poop Song,” Farley paused. He adjusted a few dials, consulted his notebook, thought for a few seconds and plowed on to the next song. Different tempo, different vocals, similar theme.

Tunka, Tunka , he sang. Poop, poop poop poop poop .

Brett Martin is the author of ‘‘Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution’’ and a three-time James Beard Award winner. He most recently wrote about Las Vegas’s punk museum for the magazine. Chris Buck is a photographer and director. He was the first recipient of the Arnold Newman Portrait Prize.

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Taylor, a film student who watched many screenings of Farley’s films. Taylor uses they and them pronouns, not he and him.

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