Howard Rubenstein of Rubenstein and Associates interviewed Charlie Rose as the opening keynote. Kind of an interesting way of doing a keynote address. It was a conversation, which is fitting given the theme of the conference, which is “The Power of Story: New Media, New Technologies, A New Narrative for PR.”
Here are some points/quotes from Charlie:
“I think of our show as a global conversation.” He thinks he’s probably quoted more than any other media personality because he does five hours of conversations a week.
Sophia Loren was way more interesting to interview than Henry Kissinger…”She’s everything I dream about.” Rupert Murdoch is also one of Charlie’s favorites. Others are Ted Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Warren Buffet
His show uses robotic cameras, so there is nobody there to distract his guests.
Advice for placing a guest on Charlie Rose: remember it’s long form. Understand the show, and Charlie’s curiosity. He wants it to be about ideas, biography, lessons. Don’t try to sell a product. Sell authenticity and “realness.”
His show doesn’t do pre-interviews at all. That keeps it fresher. He just tries to be curious. He doesn’t speak to the guest in advance, but his staff does lots of research in advance.
Charlie sees digital media as extremely imporant: His mission is to make his show more widely available around the internet. He has 17 years of interviews with the most interesting people in the world. The arrival of the digital world means he can make all of his content available free in the archives. He has done 20,000 interviews, and has interviewed all of the remaining presidential candidates at least two or three times.
He said he was surprised at Bill Clinton’s reaction to Sen. Obama in an interview just before the Iowa caucuses.
Charlie thinks Sen. Clinton staying in the race isn’t hurting the Democratic party, and that there is too much talk about her getting out. She believes she should be president, and it’s her decision.
I think he said he wants to make his videos available in Facebook. One of the downsides of the wide-ranging conversation is that it’s easy to ramble. Still much better than a prepared speech, though.
I took some video of this session and may be posting some of it later.
