Most media preparation happens after the request arrives, with a deadline already running. That’s exactly backwards. The decisions that actually matter — who speaks for the organisation, what the two or three things are that must get said, and which topics are genuinely off-limits — are decisions you have time to make properly right now, and none of that time exists once a journalist is already on the phone.
Do this now. Write three short lists: who is the named spokesperson for a media request in your organisation, what are the two or three messages you’d want reported regardless of what you’re asked, and what, if anything, is a genuine “we’re not discussing that” line rather than something you’d rather not answer. Keep this somewhere you can find it in five minutes, not somewhere you’d have to search for.
This lesson isn’t about any specific interview. It’s the preparation that makes every future interview start from a position of readiness instead of a standing start, which is where most avoidable mistakes actually happen.
