Best examples of how to choose interview subjects

Start with real examples of how to choose interview subjects

Let’s skip the theory and go straight into the messy, real-world decision-making. These are best examples pulled from how working journalists, content marketers, and nonprofit storytellers actually pick people to interview.

Example of choosing interview subjects for a breaking news story

Imagine you’re covering a sudden heat wave in Phoenix for a digital news outlet.

You could talk to anyone who’s hot and annoyed. But stronger choices come from asking, “Whose perspective reveals something important that readers can’t see on their own?”

In this case, your examples of how to choose interview subjects might include:

A local ER doctor talking about heat-related illnesses and hospital capacity.
A city official responsible for cooling centers.
A delivery driver or outdoor worker living this reality eight hours a day.
A senior citizen on a fixed income dealing with high electric bills.

Notice the mix: one medical expert, one policy voice, and two everyday people. This blend gives your story authority, context, and emotional impact.

If you want authoritative background before you even start, you might scan resources from the National Weather Service or heat-related health guidance from CDC.gov. That helps you spot which types of experts and lived experiences you still need.

Example of choosing interview subjects for a health blog post

Say you’re writing for a hospital blog about “Living Well With Type 2 Diabetes.” You don’t just want a generic doctor quote.

Here, strong examples of how to choose interview subjects might be:

An endocrinologist who can explain treatment options in plain language.
A registered dietitian who talks about realistic food swaps.
A patient who recently changed their lifestyle and can speak to the emotional side.
A family member who supports a loved one with diabetes.

Together, these voices cover medical accuracy, practical daily choices, mindset, and family dynamics.

You might review patient education pages from Mayo Clinic or NIH first, so you can target your questions and decide which interview subjects can fill gaps instead of repeating what’s already online.

Examples of examples of how to choose interview subjects for different goals

The “right” interview subject depends heavily on your goal. Are you trying to explain, persuade, inspire, or investigate? Let’s walk through more real examples by purpose.

When your goal is to explain a complex topic

Picture a piece titled, “How Generative AI Is Changing Hiring in 2025.” This can get technical fast, so your examples of how to choose interview subjects should include:

A labor economist from a university research center who can talk about hiring trends.
An HR director at a mid-sized company actually using AI screening tools.
A job seeker who’s had to adapt to AI-driven application processes.
A tech ethicist or digital rights advocate raising privacy and bias concerns.

Instead of leaning on one “big name,” you’re building a mini panel in your head: data, practice, lived experience, and critique. That mix keeps the piece grounded and balanced.

To find credible experts, you can scan faculty pages from universities like Harvard University or research programs listed on USA.gov. These sources often list professors and centers already working on your topic.

When your goal is to inspire or motivate

For a brand or nonprofit blog, you might be creating a story like, “From Side Hustle to Full-Time Business: How One Parent Did It.”

Your best examples of how to choose interview subjects here might be:

A parent who made the leap and is willing to share numbers, fears, and failures.
A small business coach who can translate that story into general advice.
A partner or friend who saw the transformation up close.

You’re not looking for the most famous entrepreneur on Instagram. You’re looking for someone whose story mirrors your audience and feels reachable. The expert then helps generalize that story into takeaways.

When your goal is to investigate or hold power accountable

Investigative or watchdog pieces demand a different kind of thinking. Suppose you’re reporting on unsafe rental housing conditions in a major city.

Your examples of how to choose interview subjects might include:

Tenants from different buildings and backgrounds.
A housing attorney or legal aid worker.
A city inspector or former inspector.
A landlord or property manager willing to speak on record.
A housing policy researcher.

Here, you’re looking for patterns and contradictions. You want people directly affected, people enforcing the rules, people breaking or bending them, and people studying the system.

This is where you lean harder on cross-checking. If a city official claims inspections are timely, but tenants and legal aid groups say otherwise, you’ve got tension worth exploring.

How to reverse-engineer your interview subject list from your angle

Instead of starting with, “Who do I know?” start with, “What’s my angle?” Then build a cast of characters that serves that angle.

Think of your story like a small documentary:

Who represents the problem?
Who represents the solution?
Who represents the system around both?
Who represents the reader’s point of view?

Let’s use a sustainability blog post: “Can Urban Gardening Really Feed a City?”

Real examples of how to choose interview subjects here could be:

A community garden organizer juggling volunteers and city rules.
A city planner who can talk about land use and zoning.
A food policy researcher who has data on urban agriculture output.
A low-income resident for whom the garden is a real food source, not a hobby.

Now you’ve got a system: practice, policy, research, and lived impact. You can repeat this casting process for almost any topic.

2024–2025 trends that shape who you should interview

The media and content landscape has shifted, and that changes your best examples of who to talk to.

Trend: Audiences are tired of the same “celebrity experts”

Readers and listeners in 2024–2025 are increasingly skeptical of one-note expert takes. They want diverse, local, and lived perspectives.

That means your examples of how to choose interview subjects should:

Go beyond the top three names on Google.
Include sources from different regions, backgrounds, and age groups.
Bring in people who are doing the work, not just commenting on it.

For instance, if you’re covering teen mental health, don’t stop at a child psychologist. Consider:

A high school counselor who sees day-to-day patterns.
A teen peer-support leader.
A parent navigating the system.

Background research from NIMH can help you understand trends so you know which angles and voices to prioritize.

Trend: Remote interviews open up your options

You’re no longer limited to who can physically meet you at a coffee shop. Video calls, voice notes, and asynchronous Q&As mean your real examples of how to choose interview subjects can include:

Someone in a different time zone who lived through a policy change before it hits your country.
A researcher at a national institute who doesn’t usually talk to local press.
A patient advocate who travels constantly but can send thoughtful voice messages.

This widens your pool and makes it easier to match the perfect person to your angle instead of settling for “who’s nearby.”

Trend: Fact-checking and credibility are under a microscope

Misinformation has made audiences more wary. That means you need both credible experts and transparent sourcing.

When building your list of interview subjects:

Look for affiliations with recognized institutions (.gov, .edu, respected .org).
Cross-check claims against sources like CDC, NIH, or major academic centers.
Avoid relying on a single voice for anything that affects health, safety, or finances.

Your readers don’t need you to name every source in the piece, but they can feel when a story is grounded versus thrown together from random opinions.

Practical examples of how to choose interview subjects by format

Different formats ask for different kinds of people. Let’s look at how this plays out in practice.

For a Q&A-style interview article

If the whole piece hinges on one person, that person must be:

Deeply knowledgeable about a topic and
Able to speak in stories, not just jargon.

Say you’re doing a Q&A called, “Inside the ICU: A Nurse on Burnout and Hope.” Your examples of how to choose interview subjects could be:

A nurse with at least a few years of ICU experience.
Someone involved in staff wellness initiatives.
A nurse who has worked through COVID surges and can compare then vs. now.

You’re looking for someone who can carry 1,500 words with detail and emotion. You might still talk to other people to shape your questions, but the published focus stays on that one strong voice.

For a multi-source reported feature

A feature on “The New Reality of Remote Work for Parents” might weave together several voices.

Your best examples of how to choose interview subjects here:

Two or three parents with very different setups (single parent, dual-income couple, caregiver for an elderly parent, etc.).
An HR leader talking about flexible policies.
A workplace psychologist discussing burnout and boundaries.

The magic of a feature is in the contrast. You want readers to see themselves somewhere in that mix.

For branded content or case studies

Brands often default to the happiest customer they can find. But your examples of how to choose interview subjects for a case study should consider:

A customer who faced a real, relatable problem (not a fairy-tale scenario).
Someone willing to share metrics or specific outcomes.
A user whose industry matches your target audience.

For instance, if you’re writing for a project management tool aimed at construction companies, interviewing a software startup founder is a mismatch. A project manager at a regional construction firm is a better example of how to choose interview subjects that align with your strategy.

How to avoid weak interview subject choices

Sometimes the best way to learn is by looking at what not to do. Here are patterns to watch for when evaluating your own list of interview subjects.

Red flag: Everyone sounds the same

If all your sources have similar jobs, backgrounds, or opinions, your story will feel flat.

Before you commit, ask:

Do I have both expert and everyday voices where appropriate?
Do I have perspectives from people affected by the issue, not just those commenting on it?
Would a skeptical reader say, “You only talked to one side”?

If the answer is yes, your next step is to find people who complicate the narrative in a useful way.

Red flag: You picked the most convenient, not the most insightful

We’ve all done it: you quote the one coworker who replied fast on Slack. But if you’re serious about sharpening your work, your examples of how to choose interview subjects should prioritize:

Relevance over convenience.
Depth of experience over title alone.
Willingness to be specific over vague brand-safe quotes.

Sometimes the best interview subject is not the CEO but the frontline worker who actually uses the tool, runs the program, or talks to customers.

Red flag: No one represents the audience’s reality

If your readers are entry-level professionals, but all your sources are executives, there’s a disconnect. If your podcast is for patients, but all your guests are doctors, same problem.

A strong example of how to choose interview subjects always includes at least one person whose life looks like your audience’s life right now.

A simple repeatable method you can use every time

To turn all these real examples into a habit, use this quick mental checklist whenever you start a new piece:

Define your angle in one sentence.
List the roles that matter to that angle (expert, policymaker, affected person, implementer, skeptic, supporter).
For each role, brainstorm at least two specific names or profiles.
Prioritize people who bring stories, data, or decisions to the table.
Make sure your final mix reflects diverse perspectives and your audience’s reality.

If you get stuck, skim recent articles on similar topics from respected outlets and note who they quote. That’s not to copy them, but to see patterns in strong examples of how to choose interview subjects—then push yourself one step further by adding voices they missed.

FAQ: examples of choosing interview subjects

Q: Can you give an example of choosing interview subjects for a short blog post?
If you’re writing a 700-word blog post on “How Teachers Are Using AI in the Classroom,” you might talk to one middle school teacher using AI for lesson planning and one high school teacher using it for grading. You might add a quick quote from an education researcher for context. That’s a tight, focused example of how to choose interview subjects without overloading the piece.

Q: How many interview subjects should I include in one article?
For a short blog post, one to three is usually enough. For a longer feature, three to six voices often work well. Look back at the best examples of how to choose interview subjects in this guide: the number depends on your angle, word count, and how much depth each person can provide.

Q: What are some examples of bad interview subject choices?
Examples include interviewing only company executives for a story about employee burnout, or talking only to parents (and not teens) for a piece about youth social media use. Another weak example of selection is quoting a random influencer as a “health expert” without checking credentials against trusted sources like NIH or Mayo Clinic.

Q: How do I balance experts and everyday people?
Start with one or two experts to anchor your facts, then add one to three people living the issue day to day. Many of the real examples of how to choose interview subjects above follow this pattern: expert + policymaker + affected person. That balance keeps your work accurate and emotionally resonant.

Q: Where can I find credible experts to interview?
Check university faculty directories, research centers, and professional associations. Government and nonprofit sites like NIH.gov, CDC.gov, and major universities often list media contacts or expert directories. These are reliable places to find real examples of qualified people who can speak clearly and accurately on your topic.

Real-world examples of how to choose interview subjects that actually work