PDX Media Day with John Schrag

By: Devyn McMillen

One of the hardest tasks of being a journalist can be finding, maintaining and keeping sources, but with the help of John Schrag’s “Can We Talk?” session at PDX Media Day, this task can be extraordinarily more simple.


John Schrag is the executive editor of Pamplin Media Group and is an award-winning editor. Due to his personal experience as a journalist, he described what makes a good journalist, how to find the right sources to interview, how to get people to talk, and more. One of the key points that Schrag expressed during his interview was when finding someone to interview, find people who know more than you and who are connected to more sources. In journalism, it is very important to constantly be finding out new information and links from your sources, otherwise, the interviewee will not lead anywhere. Even if the interviewee doesn't have the exact information you need, the important thing is that they will lead you to the information you need.


Schrag also talked about how to keep key sources. According to Schrag, one of the important things to make the interviewee relax. Sometimes, interviewee’s can be scared by the word interview, so it is more effective to frame it differently. For example, instead of saying, “Can I interview you?” phrase it as, “Can I talk with you?” It also can be helpful to make the interviewee feel like they have the authority and to make them feel like they are in control, or Schrag puts it as, “appealing to their egos.” Another important part about being a journalist is the attempt to get people on the record. This is important because anonymous sources are not liable for what they say and they are not as trustworthy to a reader. It is helpful to build trust with sources and not to pressure them into going on the record at first, but if you manage to gain their trust, they will be more willing to go on the record. During John Scrag’s session at PDX media day, he shared his knowledge of investigative journalism to help everyone who attended his session on how to find, maintain and keep sources.