J. Miguel Santiago Colón, who will graduate in December from the Podcasting and Audio Reportage graduate program, is an audio producer from Puerto Rico, currently based in New York City. He likes working on stories centered around Latino and Caribbean communities and is an assistant producer at Radio Ambulante Studios.

Q: This summer, you published two audio segments in The World about salsa music, including one about a concert in the 1970s. Can you tell us how this idea came about? 

A: I knew of this concert because The Fania All-Stars released a record of it back in the 1970’s and the label was rereleasing it around the same time I was starting to get into salsa and buying vinyls. Since it was my first record, I heard it multiple times a day to the point that I can now recite it by memory. 

But earlier this year, for my Non-narrated and Archival Audio course with Sarah Kramer, I was interested in doing a story about the history of salsa music. While trying to get into specifics, I thought it’d be a good idea to finish the story around the point where that concert took place. Luckily, I was able to find someone who was there at that concert and made the whole story more colorful and worth reporting on it. 

Q: How did the pitching process go for you?

A: In this case, it was one of those times where I was sure my story fit really well in the place where I was pitching it—The World. I think knowing your publication’s work and standards does a lot of the heavy lifting in figuring out if it works for them. This was just one of those cases where I emailed them the pitch and got a quick response. The rest was smooth sailing. 

Q: What did you learn during the editing process? 

A: In my previous reporting experience, the editor/reporter relationship was an ordinary one—just file the story and wait for a question or two. In this case it was more intensive. My editor, Aaron Schachter, does his edits while on a call with reporters, which means we had to spend a few hours figuring out how to improve the story, make it flow better and avoid leaving our listeners with more questions than answers. This was all new to me back then, but since then I’ve had similar experiences working on other stories and found it to be extremely helpful to just sit down and work alongside a colleague.

Q: What did you learn during the pitching and publishing process that you think would be helpful to other journalists looking to get their work published? 

A: A few weeks ago, on a panel at 20 Cooper about what editors wish freelancers knew, a guest said something that really stuck out: “Making questions to your editor today will save hours of edits in the future.”

Although it wasn’t exactly like that in my case, I do wish I had asked more questions about the workflow process and deadlines ahead of time so I could have a clearer idea of how I should approach working the story early on. It seems obvious to me now, but if an outlet accepts your pitch, they won’t kill the story just because something isn’t crystal clear to you. Ask questions early in the process and that way everything runs smoothly.