San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom Acts Like a Complete Jerk in a Media Interview
I’m always on the lookout for good on-camera examples of spokespeople doing a terrible job. It’s a great teaching tool — seriously. So if you’ve got any examples, by all means forward them to me.
Playboy SF Mayor Gavin Newsom has made a dandy contribution to the archive with his interview on CBS 5 here in [...]
Hooray for frickin’ Carol Bartz of Yahoo!
I’ve decided I’m a big Carol Bartz fan. Note to my contacts at Yahoo: I want to meet her and be her media trainer!
The latest Bartz bomb came yesterday in response, again, to one of those “how can Yahoo survive” questions. The Yahoo CEO turned the question around and challenged the media to focus on [...]
Even White House Reporters Don't Like Interviews "On Background"
One of the most important techniques every spokesperson should master is negotiating the “terms of the interview.” All too often, spokespeople go into interviews assuming one thing, while the journalist assumes another. Later, after the spokesperson has blabbed about your their product, bad-mouthed the competition and otherwise made a fool of himself, he blurts out, [...]
Yahoo's CEO Shows the Big Boys How It's Done
Nice to see some refreshing candor from Yahoo’s newish CEO, Carol Bartz.
At the hipper-than-thou D Conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, Bartz stage-whispered the f-bomb at media high priestess Kara Swisher, not a direct shot but definitely a signal that she was to be taken seriously.
Then, at the same conference, she interrupted an interview [...]
GM's Wagoner Uses the B-word and Gets Burned
Being a spokesperson is hard — seriously. And being the spokesperson when you are also the CEO of General Motors in 2009 must be close to impossible. But hey, that’s why they get paid the big bucks, right?
GM’s CEO inadvertently used the phrase “bankruptcy…could work,” at a media breakfast with the Wall Street Journal in [...]
When in Doubt, Say "How Dare You!"
A spokesperson has to have a lot of tricks up his or her sleeve — you never know what the interviewer is going to say or ask, but you’ve always got to have some sort of answer ready.
Faux indignation is a good one to have, though hopefully it’s not something you have to use a [...]
Why Media Interviews Are Like Listening to the Radio
Anyone who listens to the radio knows that the time is split between “content” and commercials. Even public radio now has its share of commercials.
When you are listening to content on the radio, you instinctively feel like you are getting what you want. But you only endure the commercials, waiting for the content to resume.
Sitting [...]
How to Get Book Authors on NPR
Here’s a first-rate tip from the recent Bulldog Reporter webinar I moderated on building relationships with journalists:
The question was this: how can unknown authors, and their publicists, get on prime NPR shows like “All Things Considered”? Answer: create a relationship with NPR Senior Producer Ellen Silva, who produces the “You Must Read This” segment and [...]
Pitch perfect media interview by Hyundai CEO
For an example of a corporate spokesman giving a great media interview, check out the interview of Hyundai CEO John Krafcik on All Things Considered last week. Krafcik was on NPR to tout Hyundai’s Assurance Plan, under which consumers can return the car during the first year if they lose their job.
The write-up doesn’t do [...]