The Media Interview

At least once in their careers, most journalists have had a technical problem that required them to re-do an interview. New York Times Senior Art Director Steven Heller, a widely-published design writer and editor, shared his experience in an email interview with Unbeige:

For years I would use my trusty cassette player — usually face to face, but sometimes over the phone with my trusty suction cup — until one day I did a great interview with the illustrator James McMullan and when I returned home, nada. Nothing recorded. Embarrassed, I had to ask him to do it all over again, and of course it wasn’t as spontaneous. This time I brought two machines and used them both. Good thing too, because one of them actually — believe it or not — didn’t work. … Now I use a digital recorder.

And don’t forget the extra set of batteries…