Journalist Interview Preparation Template
Three documents and one sheet that turn a subject's public record into a background brief, an ordered question set, and the follow-up that catches a contradiction.
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Most interview-prep advice says to research the subject's background, which is true and unhelpfully vague about how. Journalist's Resource, the Shorenstein Center's training site, is more specific. Before interviewing an official, put in sufficient time researching previous news articles written about that person; the interview may be the only chance anyone gets to hold them accountable for a given claim. Almost nobody turns that research into something checkable in the room, which is the gap this pack is built to close.
Prior Statement Register holds one row per public statement the subject has made on the story's topic, sourced and dated. A space rule checks every new row against the most recent one on the same topic before it gets logged. On the worked file, a transit spokesperson's press release says there has been no change to the published timeline, sixty-nine days after his own board minutes already moved the completion date back two quarters. Both rows are on the record. The register is what puts them side by side before the tape starts rolling.
Background Brief and Question Set draft from the register rather than from a blank page, and Anticipated Deflection Note plans the follow-up for however the hardest question gets answered around. Built for reporters walking into an accountability interview with a public official, executive or spokesperson who has a public record to check. Once the tape is rolling, interview transcript workup turns it into the quotes you write from, and where two sources disagree about the same fact rather than one subject disagreeing with themselves, multi-source fact reconciliation is the better fit.
What's in the pack
Prior Statement Register
One row per public statement on the story's topic, sourced and dated, marked as reaffirming, superseding or contradicting whatever came before it. A position stated five times gets five rows, because how often it was repeated is part of the record too.
Background Brief
What is established about the subject and the story, what isn't, and why it matters now, led by whatever the register itself found rather than by generic biography. Four minutes to read, not forty.
Question Set
Ordered from low friction to the hardest question, with every question built on a flagged row stating both statements it rests on, by date and source, the way it would read in print.
Anticipated Deflection Note
The two to four realistic ways a subject answers around the hardest question, each with the follow-up that closes it and the register row that makes the follow-up possible.
A space rule that flags before it logs
Any new statement on a topic already in the register gets checked against the most recent row first. A repeat is marked reaffirms, a disclosed change is marked supersedes, and an undisclosed one is flagged as what it is.
Built to hand off
Send the recording to interview transcript workup once the tape stops, and where the subject's record includes a docket entry, court filing and docket tracking reads what it actually argues.
How to use it
- 1
Send the subject's record
Past coverage, press releases, board minutes, filings or transcripts of earlier interviews, in whatever shape you have them. If the name already shows up in a beat's own memory, send that too.
- 2
River builds the register
Every statement on the story's topic becomes its own row, sourced and dated, checked against the most recent row on that same topic as it goes in.
- 3
Read the brief and the question set
Both draft from the register, with the hardest questions built directly on whatever it flagged and stating the specific rows each one rests on.
- 4
Work it in chat
Ask for a harder follow-up, the two-minute version for an editor, or to log the subject's actual answers as new rows once the interview is done.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. The Background Brief, Question Set, Anticipated Deflection Note and the Prior Statement Register download as Word and CSV files with no signup. "Edit with AI" is a separate optional path for building the register from the subject's record.
How is this different from just researching the person before I go?
Research usually stays in your head or scattered notes. This pack puts every prior statement in one sourced, dated register a space rule checks automatically, so a contradiction is a row you can cite, not a feeling from reading. It tracks what the subject said publicly, not what a source agreed to privately, which is source and contact management's job instead.
What if the subject hasn't actually contradicted themselves?
Then the Background Brief says so plainly, and the Question Set is built from what's actually established rather than a manufactured gap. A clean record is still useful to know going in, and this pack does not invent tension a subject's statements don't support.
Does this work for an expert or a witness, not just an official or executive?
Yes, for anyone with a public record worth checking: a company spokesperson, an agency official, an expert who has published or testified before. It fits less well for a source with no prior public statements, where there is nothing yet to register.
What format are the downloaded files?
Word documents for the Background Brief, Question Set and Anticipated Deflection Note. CSV for the Prior Statement Register, one row per statement with its source and date. Everything opens natively in Word, Excel or Sheets, with no conversion step.
What does 'Edit with AI' actually do?
It creates a free account and installs this exact pack as a private workspace. The agent then reads whatever record you send, on the subject and the topic, to build the register before drafting the brief and the question set from it.
Can I keep using the register after this interview?
Yes, and that is the point of a register over a one-time prep sheet. Send the subject's next statement, on this topic or another, and the space rule checks it against every row already logged before adding it.
Walk in already knowing what they said last time
Download the blank register and docs as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent build them from the subject's public record.
Edit with AI