Eric Nalder's "Loosening Lips" workshop is like a favorite movie that you can watch over and over again. The program addresses one of the most important and underrated reporting skills. Almost anyone can do the easy interview. But the difficult interview or the elusive interview is a new challenge each time no matter how many interviews you have conducted.
Posted, August 6, 2004
Steve Buttry
Back to Training Tracks

Learn how to loosen lips

Do you have a few favorite movies that you can watch over and over again, no matter how many times you've already seen them? I saw "Field of Dreams" in the theater and then more times than I can remember on video, yet when the DVD came out, I dropped enough hints that I got it for Father's Day.

Eric Nalder's "Loosening Lips" workshop is the same way for me. I've attended three times and I'd love to go again. I'm going to have to miss his keynote address for the Mid-America Press Institute's seminar "Interviewing: The Heart of the Story," in St. Louis Sept. 10-12, but I hope you can be there. (Cost is $50 for people from MPI member newspapers and $75 for non-members. You can register here: http://www.mpinews.org/schedule.cfm).

The program addresses one of the most important and underrated reporting skills. Almost anyone can do the easy interview. But the difficult interview or the elusive interview is a new challenge each time no matter how many interviews you have conducted.

Nalder, a two-time Pulitzer winner for the Seattle Times, now writes for the San Jose Mercury News. He's a great storyteller and his stories of challenging interviews illustrate and teach the skills reporters need to get more from their own interviews. As you listen to Nalder, you're glad he's not interviewing you. You know he would get you to give up the secrets you swore in advance of the interview that you wouldn't turn loose.

He talks about getting in the door by finding common ground: "'By the way, I notice you've got a poodle. I've got a poodle. Weird dogs. Just the other day . . .' The process is to get a person talking about anything and eventually they'll talk about what you came for."

He talks about nudging the reluctant source along "with a soft but relentless momentum. Massage objections into possibilities. Propose alternatives. Don't argue. Steer. Keep the conversation rolling."

He talks about "ratcheting" the reluctant source onto the record. After a background interview, Nalder will pick a harmless quote and ask the source, "Now what about this thing you said here. Why can't you say that on the record?" And then he moves to another quote: "Well, if you can say that on the record, why can't you say this?" Nalder has ratcheted entire interviews back on the record.

At the key part of the interview, Nalder slows things down and turns the source into a storyteller. He's asking questions in the present tense: "What are you doing now? What is your friend saying?"

Nalder leads off a strong program at the Mid-America Press Institute seminar. (A word of personal disclosure here: I am a member of the Mid-America Press Institute's board of directors.) Joe Hight, managing editor of the Daily Oklahoman, and Margaret Holt, customer service editor of the Chicago Tribune, planned the program and each will lead a session.

Michael Roberts, deputy managing editor for staff development at the Arizona Republic and a longtime leader in newsroom training, will lead a session on effective listening.

Dr. Frank Ochberg, a psychiatrist and founder of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, will discuss the psychological effects of your interview. The Dart Center (www.dartcenter.org) is a co-sponsor of the seminar.

Other speakers will include Cassandra West and Oscar Avila, both of the Chicago Tribune, and Andy Schneider of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Click here to read the handout for Nalder's "Loosening Lips: The Art of the Interview" on No Train, No Gain.

Some other helpful resources for improving your interviewing skills:

Back to Training Tracks