Biz reporter Matthew Kish: The role model for anyone

Andy Giegerich, the managing editor of the Portland Business Journal, writes about departing reporter Matthew Kish, who is leaving for a job at Business Insider.

Giegerich writes, “Matt’s last day at the PBJ is today. He’s spent the past decade-and-a-half, oh, let’s see, breaking story after story, mentoring younger reporters (and, as I have an easy 10 years on him, older writers and editors as well), pushing our newsroom to always do better, volunteering, essentially, to help other reporters within our ACBJ universe (we have 40-plus papers in our chain) learn how to better investigate and organize stories, winning myriad awards, serving as an ambassador-of-sorts (and in the process giving our paper far more cachet than we’d enjoyed before) within the media world, making dozens, if not hundreds, of contacts and helping others parlay those connections into solid careers (that list includes two young writers who are about to become national media stars), critiquing his work, critiquing others’ work (yup, this is a long paragraph with too many parenthetical thoughts, Matt), bouncing ideas off others, putting the notion of team above self even though his own ‘self’ happens to be a superstar.

“And that’s not even getting into Matt outside the workplace. He’s the most genuine person I’ve ever met, a self-deprecating, best-intentioned soulful human who’s a role model both inside and outside of the office. That’s what I’ll miss about working with him the most.”

Read more here.