Three years ago, Dugan Arnett, an investigative reporter at The Boston Globe, received an email from a woman asking for help.
Arnett had been granted a rare moment of free time that day, so he decided to phone her up. He then listened to a “fake-sounding” story for one to two hours about a “love triangle” involving a New Bedford police detective.
Arnett was cautious. But the woman’s story was intriguing, and when she later provided documentation — including text messages and court records — to substantiate her claims, Arnett was gradually convinced.
“She came with the goods,” he said.
Their initial phone call became the “launching pad for everything,” culminating in a podcast series produced by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team, the newspaper’s investigative and accountability journalism reporting unit.
“Snitch City” tells how the police in New Bedford, Mass., use confidential informants to take down drug dealers. The podcast exposes a secret world of informants and alleged official misconduct and abuse, including a complicated relationship between an informant, detective, and the informant’s fiancée, who was accused of drug trafficking. Following the release of the podcast series, New Bedford’s mayor announced that the city had hired an independent consultant to review the police department’s policies and practices.
“Snitch City” landed in Apple Podcasts’ Top 10 for True Crime. Arnett, Spotlight Editor Brendan McCarthy, and Head of Audio Kristin Nelson offered insight into their work at the recent Power of Narrative conference at Boston University. (Full disclosure: I'm a student at BU and writer for Boston.com, which is owned by Boston Globe Media.)
Here are some takeaways and a look inside the creation of “Snitch City”:
- How to identify a print story with audio potential: Arnett’s tip originally turned into a 2023 Globe Magazine story. When Nelson first read the piece, she knew right away that it had the potential to be more than a print story. It had great characters and great scenes, narrative tension, and a plot that could be constructed with cliffhangers at the end of every episode.
- Podcast series need “audio-first” reporting. The reporting that followed the initial magazine story took an “audio-first” approach. What does “audio first” mean? “It means that you can’t go and do that banger interview and tell me about it after,” Nelson said. “Audio first” reporters are always thinking about recording voice memos and how they can document what they are doing in an audio form. That means not only recording good-quality audio interviews, but requesting video and audio documents in addition to written ones.
- Writing for audio versus print: Beyond scenes, it is important to “be character-forward,” and to have a narrative arc that ties the whole podcast series together, Nelson said. You should be asking yourself, “How are we going to hold on to people [till] the end?” For audio narratives, it is crucial to find a balance between telling a great audio story and "making sure that you're doing justice and showing how much reporting has been done."
- Transitioning from print to audio reporting: Initially, Arnett said he viewed the added podcast piece as a bit of an “annoyance.” He said he would think of his audio reporting obligations separately as he went about his reporting the way he usually would for a print story. But once he recognized the possibilities that audio reporting offered that print didn’t, he changed his tune. “It was very cool to discover that you can do things in audio that you can't do in print,” he said. “Once you get over the fear of just doing something new, you see the opportunities.”
- Managing anonymous sources for audio stories: Using anonymous sources for audio brings its own challenges. You have to construct a story using the tape that you have and are allowed to use, while still making sure that your strongest characters’ voices are heard. “Some people are comfortable saying some things, some people aren't,” Arnett said. “So we had to get creative.” For the podcast, the team hired voice actors in some cases to play the roles of anonymous sources.
- Print and audio stories aren't always the same. The Spotlight Team could have stopped where the Globe Magazine piece did, but they sensed that there was more to uncover. As other tips started to come in following the initial story, the team continued reporting and filing many more public records requests. “Keep digging,” McCarthy said.
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Lindsay Shachnow covers general assignment news for Boston.com.
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