Fiona Leung of the Hong Kong Economic Times is one of Hong Kong’s most respected journalists. As Assignment Editor of the Net+, Trade & Commerce, Executive & Market and Smart Management sections, Fiona is responsible for a broad scope of coverage from technology, retail and commerce to human resources and executive interviews. In this exclusive Telum virtual event, she shared with us what her daily schedule is like, her most memorable interviews as well as the Dos and Don’ts when pitching to her.  

Key takeaways:

Duties and schedule

• Fiona oversees a team of 10 journalists and she assigns which interviews and stories the journalist work on according to their strengths and interests as well as other practical factors like the languages they speak professionally.
• Tuesdays and Wednesdays are usually very busy and she can’t guarantee she and the team can join press conferences.
• She edits stories from 6pm to 8pm and manages her emails from 8pm to 10pm.

Tips on becoming interview material

• Interviewees who are good storytellers and give concise and direct responses are preferred.
• Human touch is a key component when deciding on inviting company executives for interviews.
• Figures to support stories, examples of personal experiences, company strategy and history are helpful.

Dos

• She prefers to be reached through email.
• The subject line of an email or a short Whatsapp message is key.
• Provide a summary or local language version for long research papers to ensure the terminologies are accurate.

Don'ts

• Don’t overpromise and under-deliver or change the interviewee last minute.
• Avoid sending empty follow-up emails.
• Don't call directly after emailing. Planning takes time.