Negotiating the CEO interview

Jack Flack of Conde Nast Portfolio writes Monday about how business journalists and PR people for companies negotiate with each other when it comes to interviewing the chief executive officer, and offers five rules.

This comes after CNET reporter Elinor Mills‘ story about her interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Flack wrote, “Those negotiations, like any other kind of negotiation, are shaped largely by the relative power of the two parties.

CEO Power: While most of them are hardly charismatic, top-name CEOs are still essentially rock stars in the business news world. And as CEO of perhaps the highest-profile company on the planet these days, Schmidt comes to the table with uniquely huge negotiating leverage. That’s because every reporter would love tell their editors they’ve got an interview with the Google boss.

Journalist Power: Journalists have power when they (a) write for one of the powerhouses, and (b) they already have enough good stuff to roll with a strong story. Nothing conjures sudden cooperativeness in a corporate flack faster than the sentence: ‘I’m with the Wall Street Journal, and my editors are running with this story one way or another.'”

Read more here.