About

Hello and welcome to my small corner of the interwebs! My name is Greg Linch and I’m a curious person. Maybe that helps explain why I enjoyed The Magic School Bus and Bill Nye the Science Guy so much as a youngster. I’m sure all those afternoons spent watching the History Channel as a teenager have something to do with that, too.

When I was in elementary school and someone would ask, “What do want to be when you grow up?” I would respond, “I want to be a scientist and inventor.” But by eighth grade, I’d decided that I wanted to be a writer — a fiction novelist, specifically.

In high school I found a new outlet for my passions: journalism. But, although I didn’t fully realize it until later, I was a technically-inclined journalist from the start. I created my high school newspaper’s first website and email account (no one else thought to do either one circa 2004!), I taught the newsroom InDesign (when we switched from Pagemaker), I helped maintain the digital camera gear (3 megapixels!) and frequently fixed paper jams when we printed stories or draft pages.

Jumping ahead…

I’m now director of data and graphics at Industry Dive, a business news organization with 20-plus publications. This opportunity came after a few years on the product side, where I started as a back-end developer and ended as a senior software engineer.

Before that I was a data developer at McClatchy’s DC bureau, where I built and managed company-wide data tools and projects. I previously worked at The Washington Post in a variety of jobs — from producer to news app developer to local data projects editor. In that latter role, I collaborated with reporters, editors, designers and developers on key areas such as crime, transportation, education and government. My tools included everything from FOIAs and phones to Python and project management software.

Before joining the Post, I worked on two start-ups: Publish2 (more info), which offered software platforms for newsrooms, and CoPress, which worked with college media organizations to thrive digitally.

Outside of the office, I created Diverse Sources with my partner, Mollie. The goal of the site is to connect journalists with underrepresented experts in the fields of health, science and environment. Built using Django, the code is open-source and available for re-use.

I’ve taught web development for media as an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown (grad students) and Howard (undergrad students) universities. Also, I taught/coached journalism grad students at Northwestern University’s Medill D.C. program as part of their National Security Journalism Initiative.

For six years I served on the Online News Association board of directors (2013-2019).

I graduated from the University of Miami (Fla.) and worked at The Miami Hurricane in a number of roles, including news editor and editor in chief.

My other newsroom experience includes internships at The Dallas Morning News, The Miami Herald, South Florida Sun Sentinel and Forum Publishing Group. I’m a former Poynter Young Journalist Fellow, Ted Scripps Leadership Institute participant and Al Neuharth Free Spirit Scholar.

For more information, check out my resume or LinkedIn.

The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do represent those of my employers — past, present, future or from any other dimensions or universes.