Meet Adam Sichko, ACBJ’s best beat reporter for the year

Adam Sichko is a senior reporter for the Nashville Business Journal, an American City Business Journals paper, and last month he was named one of two best beat reporters at company. (The other is Matthew Kish of the Portland Business Journal, who won in 2015 and whom we interviewed then.)

Sichko covers commercial real estate and manufacturing. He previously reported for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and also the Albany (N.Y.) Business Review, where he won two awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

Sichko was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and he graduated from the University of Kentucky. As a senior, he was editor in chief of the independent daily student newspaper, The Kentucky Kernel.

Sichko spoke with Talking Biz News by email about his career and covering real estate. What follows is an edited transcript.

How did you decide to become a business journalist?

There was no one defining moment — over time, I gradually gravitated toward business. I’m a sports nut; I started in journalism in college, at The Kentucky Kernel, by covering sports. I bring that up because business is a lot like the tension and unpredictability of sports, and it’s intertwined with politics, another interest of mine.

Every day, CEOs wake up striving to beat the competition. The scrappy underdog versus the Fortune 50 titan. Somebody wins, somebody loses, with real consequences. There are bootstrap-to-billionaire stories, and dramatic downfalls. The variety of personalities — people whose money, influence and power change the economy and the region — is hard to top. And covering business forces you to stay current on a host of national and international story lines that can have an impact on the market you’re covering.

Why did you decide to move from upstate New York to Nashville?

The opportunity to cover such a high-profile beat, in a city on an epic growth tear and gaining a national profile, was a chance I felt I had to seize. It was also a very difficult decision. I wouldn’t even be doing this Q&A if it wasn’t for my editor there, Mike Hendricks. Albany, N.Y., was my first full-time journalism job. Mike was precisely the editor and mentor I so vitally needed. I’ll always owe him, even if he is a Michigan fan (at least he comes by it honestly).

What attracted you to covering real estate?

It was a beat I’d never covered before, and one that was moving at a rapid pace. It wasn’t enough change just to be in a different city. I was trying to force myself outside my comfort zone as much as possible.

Why is real estate such an important story for Nashville right now?

The money and power brokers (homegrown and imported) that the real estate industry is injecting into Nashville right now are unlike anything anyone here has ever witnessed. It’s a once-in-a-generation rewriting of the skyline, which is making everyone rethink what they thought they knew about Nashville.

Each new tower crane speaks to the city’s aspirations and provokes questions about just how high Nashville can go … and how high residents really want it to go. Issues critical to the city’s long-term prospects — such as housing affordability and traffic congestion — tie directly into real estate. To be paid to be in the mix of all that? It’s awesome.

Walk me through a typical day for you.

I never really know what I’m walking into, especially these days. The two constants are a (mostly) healthy paranoia about getting beat on a story, and making sure I get out of the office. The truly great stories, the ones you tack on the wall, the ones you’ll reminisce about years later, do not come at your keyboard.

How much time do you spend on stories for the print paper vs. online?

I’m working on both aspects daily. The basic goal is to go chase big news, every day. I’d say majority of my time is online. It’s tough to keep online coverage from eating into time I should be spending on our print. It’s an imperfect balancing act, but I gladly take it. The approach ACBJ takes with online and print is one of the chief reasons I think we’re in one of the best positions in an ever-unstable business.

What kind of public records are you using on your beat?

It’s far from just deeds. I’m using whatever I can get my hands on — court cases, SEC disclosures, campaign contributions, and filing open records requests for emails, documents and databases, especially about incentives.

How did you come up with Crane Watch? How often does it get updated?

Crane Watch is our attempt to help our readers comprehend the magnitude of Nashville’s real estate boom. That theme is a constant in our coverage, but this was a new way of presenting that. The spark came when a veteran in the business remarked that even he couldn’t keep track of all that was happening. If he couldn’t do it, no way our broader readership could keep pace.

The real credit for the map’s success goes to our design editor, Meg Wrather, who translated my idea into something we could actually achieve. My goal is to refresh the map weekly with new projects and new information.

How does it feel to be named as the best beat reporter in the company?

It’s fantastic and validating, no doubt about it. It may just be my name on the byline, but the hard work of a lot of others goes into that.

It needs to be said that Matt Kish, reporter for the Portland Business Journal, also was voted the best beat reporter in ACBJ (for the second straight year, and deservedly so. I’ve admired his work for some time)