How to Conduct Your First Interview: Prep, Questions, Listening, and Follow-Up
The first time you sit across from a source with a notebook in hand, or a recorder blinking on the table between you, interviewing can feel less like a skill and more like a leap of faith. It does not have to. Good interviewing is a craft built from preparation, a handful of listening habits, and a willingness to follow up rather than move on the moment you have a usable quote.
Do the homework first
Every strong interview begins before you ever ask a question. Read whatever public materials exist about the person or the topic: past statements, meeting agendas, syllabi, event programs, or prior coverage from your own newsroom. The goal is not to walk in as an expert, but to avoid wasting your source’s time on questions the answer to which is already public. It also lets you ask sharper, more specific questions instead of vague ones a source has answered a hundred times before.
Write a list of questions, but treat it as a map rather than a script. Order them from broad to specific, and save anything sensitive or difficult for later in the conversation, once trust has had a chance to build. Keep the list short enough that you are not staring at paper instead of the person in front of you.
Set up the logistics
Confirm the format ahead of time: in person, by phone, by video call, or over email. In-person and voice conversations almost always produce richer material than email, because you can ask follow-up questions in real time and hear tone, hesitation, and emphasis. Agree on a time limit before you start, and stick close to it unless your source wants to keep going. Ask permission before recording, and have a notebook as backup in case the recording fails.
Ask questions that invite a real answer
Open-ended questions produce better material than yes-or-no ones. Instead of asking whether a decision was difficult, ask what made it difficult. Instead of asking if something went well, ask what the source would do differently next time. Questions that begin with how and why tend to draw out explanation and detail, which is exactly what a story needs.
Avoid stacking two questions into one. If you ask what happened and how people reacted in the same breath, a source will often answer only the second half. Ask one thing, let the answer land, then ask the next.
Listen more than you talk
New reporters often treat an interview like a checklist: ask a question, get an answer, move to the next line. The best material usually comes from the pause after an answer, when a reporter says nothing and lets the source keep talking. Silence is uncomfortable, but it is one of the most effective tools available to an interviewer. People tend to fill quiet space, and what they add after the first sentence is frequently more candid than the rehearsed opening line.
Watch for the answer that raises a new question you had not planned to ask. If a source mentions a detail in passing that surprises you, follow it. Some of the strongest quotes in a story come from a question that was never on the original list.
Take notes even if you are recording
A recording captures words, but it does not capture the moment you knew a quote mattered. Jot down short notes next to anything that seems important as it happens, so you are not relistening to an entire conversation later to find the two sentences you actually need. If you are not recording, write down direct quotes in quotation marks in your notebook and paraphrase everything else, so you never confuse the two later.
Confirm before you leave
Before ending the conversation, read back any complicated names, titles, numbers, or spellings to make sure you have them right. Ask if there is anything the source expected you to ask but did not, and whether there is anyone else you should talk to for the story. Both questions routinely surface material a reporter would have otherwise missed.
Follow up afterward
An interview rarely ends the moment you put the notebook away. If a quote is unclear once you are writing the story, it is better to send a short follow-up question than to guess at what a source meant. Keep follow-ups specific and brief, and give the source a reasonable window to respond before your deadline. If a source asks to see their quotes before publication, follow your newsroom’s policy on that; many student papers allow a source to confirm the accuracy of a quote without allowing them to rewrite it or see the rest of the story.
Send a short thank-you note after the interview runs, especially if the source gave you significant time. It costs nothing and it is often what makes a source willing to talk to you again for the next story.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Arriving without having read anything the source has already said publicly.
- Asking leading questions that suggest the answer you want to hear.
- Interrupting an answer before the source has finished a thought.
- Failing to double check spellings, titles, and direct quotes before publication.
- Treating the interview as finished the moment the recorder stops, instead of following up on loose threads.
Building the habit
Interviewing improves with repetition far more than with theory. The first few conversations will feel stiff no matter how much you prepare. What separates reporters who improve quickly from those who plateau is usually a habit of reviewing their own interviews afterward: which questions produced strong answers, where the silence worked, and where a follow-up question should have come but did not. Keep a running list of what worked, and the next interview will go noticeably better than the last.
Adjusting your approach to different sources
Not every source responds to the same technique. A source who is naturally quiet or nervous often needs a slower pace, easier opening questions, and more patience with silence before they will open up. A source who is used to being interviewed, such as an administrator or a spokesperson, may give practiced, general answers, and getting past that usually means asking for a specific example or a specific number rather than accepting a broad statement at face value. A source speaking about a difficult personal experience needs a gentler pace and more room to pause than a source describing a routine process or decision.
Group interviews and panel settings bring their own challenge: it is easy for one voice to dominate while others say little. In that setting, it helps to direct a question to a specific person by name when you want a specific person’s perspective, rather than asking the group as a whole and letting whoever is most comfortable speaking first answer for everyone.