Page:Newspaper writing and editing.djvu/61

 type requires great skill and tact, and successful interviewers are highly valued on all newspapers.

The two problems that the reporter has to meet are how to gain access to the person to be interviewed and how to induce him to talk for publication. Busy men have not time or inclination to give interviews to every reporter who desires them. Many times such men do not wish to say anything for publication on the desired subject, and absolutely refuse to talk. The resourcefulness of the reporter is tested again and again in getting access to men who are surrounded in their offices by office boys, private secretaries, and clerks, and who on public occasions such as banquets and receptions are sometimes equally well guarded against newspaper men. When it is impossible to see the man personally, it may be possible to submit to him several written questions and thus lead him to issue a statement answering or evading the questions.

Even when an audience is secured with the person to be interviewed, his not infrequent unwillingness to talk for publication has to be overcome. On some occasions to ask immediately and directly for the desired information is the best way to secure results. At other times, to engage him in conversation on some subject in which he is interested and then to lead to the one on which the reporter wishes to interview him, proves successful. Young reporters often insist on giving their own views on the subject on which they are trying to interview a person. The reporter should remember that he is an impartial observer, not an advocate on one side or the other. If in an effort to get information from the person whom he is interviewing he suggests opposing opinions, these opinions should not be given as his own but as those of others. Tact and a knowledge of human nature are essential.