Learn how to “bridge and guide.” Politicians and media savvy professionals are great at this. If a reporter asks a question about an issue you may not want to discuss, you can acknowledge the question but redirect them slightly to where you want the interview to go. For example, if your local newspaper recently ran some articles about possible financial problems at your nonprofit agency and a reporter asks you about the allegations, you can politely say that you’re aware of the stories and use a transitional word or phrase to shift the conversation to the positive things that have happened, like a national award, a new community program or a campaign that’s been unveiled.

Example: “I’ve read some of the stories that are out there but the interesting thing is that we have so many positive things going on, like the ribbon cutting at our new community center, the mentoring program with at-risk youth and the blood drive was held last week.”

The bottom line is that there is psychology involved here. The person asking the questions is usually the one in control of the conversation Being confident and not intimidated when you go into an interview is critical.