How to Land an Interview With Charles Koch
Evil cartoon villain Charles Koch, one half of the Amazing Billionaire Koch Bros., does not give a lot of interviews. You can hardly find a photo of the guy. But one outlet has landed a coveted Charles Koch interview "get"—the Wichita Business Journal. How did they do what so many other news outlets could not?
Fortunately, Wichita Business Journal editor Bill Roy wrote a bit of an explainer on that very topic!
Some previous work we did at the Wichita Business Journal helped us get the interview.
I interviewed Koch for a feature in our 20th Anniversary publication back in 2006. He was named the No. 1 Wichita business person of the previous 20 years.
Hmmm!
Daniel McCoy and I had lunch with Koch Industries spokesperson Missy Cohlmia in the Koch Cafe.
Nice place. Good food.
Aha!
We talked several times after that initial meeting, agreed to some terms, including some topics, photography and taking no more than 45 minutes of his time.
So the secret to landing an interview with Charles Koch is: be his humble and faithful servant.
The full interview isn't out yet, but the WBJ has revealed that Koch said "We think the future is smart everything," and "Somebody has got to work to save the country and preserve a system of opportunity." In the journalism business, you do whatever it takes to get material like that.
