A Curated Interview Format: The Q & A
Quick & catchy or surprisingly chasmic, the Q & A is always a crowd-pleaser.
The Q&A is a workhorse of an interview format that transcends genres and mediums. Whether fast and dirty and often funny like the stories that have kept the 57 year old Interview magazine1 contemporary and fresh since its inception in 1969 by pop artist Andy Warhol and journalist John Wilcok; or in-depth political discussions on Politico, the Q&A can deliver plenty of bang for your interview buck.
As journalists our goal is to provide accurate and valuable information, and there’s no better way of getting a story ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’ than through the Q&A style article.
Not only does a Q&A present the interviewee’s viewpoint almost verbatim, it’s also one of the easiest article types for freelancers to pitch and write.
“How to Write a Q&A Style Article Readers Will Love,” Alison Hill, Writer’s Digest, Sep 29, 2023
Writer Alison Hill dives deep into “How to Write a Q&A Style Article Readers Will Love” in her article, identifying seven important steps to a successful piece. Below are these seven steps, condensed. I highly recommend reading the entire article for an in-depth overview.
First, what is a Q&A?
A Q&A is a question-and-answer article based on an interview with the writer and a single interview subject. The article itself is a highly edited version of the transcript of the interview, which allows the writer to eliminate any fluff or tangents (which are often the stuff of incredible profile pieces), to focus on the particular angle of the story that gets right to the point.
As Hill writes: “Since the focus is on the interviewee, readers can enjoy their story unencumbered by news angles, interjections, or any inference that can sometimes sneak into reported articles and features.”
So how do you do it?
1. Choose an interesting interview subject - both the story angle and the interviewee
You don’t have to interview a celebrity or high-profile person to get a great Q&A. You need to find someone who is interesting and likes to talk about what the angle you want to feature for your article. If you are doing a story on fishing in Santa Barbara, the quiet guy who has been fishing off the pier for the last 40 years is going to have some amazing stories to tell, even if no one knows who he is.
2. Do your research
Interviewing is a skill. And there are many skills to conducting a great interview. It takes time and practice. But what consistently makes or breaks an interview is research. What do you know, what did you take the time to learn, before your interview - both about the subject of the article and about your interview subject? The more informed you are, the more deft you can be about the questions you ask and the answers you seek.
Basic questions are fine and can be a good neutral start to an interview, but if you are interviewing a professor and you ask them where they went to college, and that information is readily available in numerous locations online, it is going to be clear you didn’t bother to do the basics, and you will lose credibility - and that person will become uninterested in talking to you, if not downright insulted.
3. Record the interview
There is no excuse for not recording an interview these days. Pretty much every phone has a voice memo app, and most of those have a transcription function. Gone are the days when you had to jot down quotes, and you don’t even have to pay for a service to transcribe your recording like you did barely a year or two ago.
There is nothing more embarrassing than having to go back to an interview subject because you did not properly record your interview. Just do it!
4. Be conversational
Remember that an interview is a conversation. It is a dialogue between two people: you and the interviewee.
This means you do not need to pretend that you are anyone other than who you are: a student journalist. You are a person interested in what the person in front of you has to say about themselves and/or a particular subject they have information about that you want to convey to your reader.
You will, of course, need to adjust your tone and demeanor depending on the person you’re interviewing. If you’re talking to a friend or a peer, or someone in a more casual setting, then you can be more informal. If you are talking to someone in a position of authority or esteem, you will want to be less casual and more buttoned-up, to support your credibility.
No matter what - maintain a level of professionalism.
5. Edit, edit, edit
The Q&A is all about the editing and the formatting. Depending on the publication and its needs, you can have a 90-minute interview that gets cut down to 200 words. It is better to have too much than too little, but a good Q&A will be edited so that every word shares something important with the reader.
Transcribe and edit your recording yourself. Even if your recording is transcribed by an app, print out the transcription and listen to the recording so you can make notes and edit in real time. You will be better able to hear the nuances of the conversation and edit for rhythm and cadence as well as accuracy.
Edit for length, flow, and clarity. You don’t have to include everything in the interview - in fact, you shouldn’t. You are in charge of what goes in, and what stays out. Sometimes less is more.
Write a catchy introduction. While it is not wrong for a Q&A to just dive right in to the Q and the A, a catchy and informative introduction goes a long way to providing context and conveying your angle to your reader to draw them in and keep them hooked.
Curate the composition. The format of the Q&A is visual, in the sense that you are working with a composition of chunks of text that can be differentiated by font sizes and weight, and interrupted by images and pull quotes. Think visually.
The more you see, the better yours will be
Q&A’s are really fun articles. They’re fun to do, because you have to be a little daring and get in the world out of your comfort zone; and they’re fun to write and compose, because you get to make a lot of curatorial decisions about what to include and what to leave out.
Have fun with your Q&A! Make it something you would want to read!
AI OVERVIEW May 5, 2026: Interview magazine was founded in 1969 by pop artist Andy Warhol and British journalist John Wilcock. As of May 2026, the publication has been around for nearly 57 years, having established itself as an influential, if occasionally tumultuous, fixture in pop culture, film, and fashion. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Founder: Andy Warhol (with John Wilcock). [1]
Founded: Late 1969 (first issue). [1]
Original Purpose: Initially titled inter/VIEW: A Monthly Film Journal, it was created by Warhol partly to obtain press passes for the New York Film Festival and as a venue for his “Factory” entourage. [1, 2]
“The Crystal Ball of Pop”: The magazine quickly evolved from a film-focused publication to a celebrity-driven “interview” magazine where celebrities, artists, and musicians interviewed each other. []
Legacy: Despite a high-profile bankruptcy and closure in 2018, the magazine was quickly resurrected and continues to operate today as a premier, often avant-garde, culture magazine. [1, 2]
Although Warhol died in 1987, Interview has continued, with Peter Brant (an art collector and former investor) acquiring the magazine in 1989. [1]