Journalists prefer in-person interviews. Emailing questions to strangers and expecting them to write out their answers is not journalism.

Jerz > Writing > Journalism

Good journalists value in-person interviews.

• An interview means a real-time give-and take, not a list of questions you email.
• Most people worth interviewing are too busy to write out their answers to help you meet your deadline.
• If you can’t meet in person, ask if your source will do a videoconference, or even (if they’re the right generation) an old-fashioned phone call. (Gasp!)

You can intuit a lot from the tone of voice a source uses when answering your questions, or how excited or nervous they get when a certain topic comes up. You don’t have to include all those details in your story, but when you’re right there with them, you can react to their real-time emotions in order to make the most of your limited time together.

Even seeing for yourself whether their office is cluttered or organized, or decorated with inspirational slogans or quirky pop culture trinkets, can provide insight that you might be able to use in a personality profile. (Read the full article: “Interviewing Tips for Journalists: Before, during and after you talk with an important source for a news story“)