I'm Matt Stiles, a senior data and graphics editor at CNN in Los Angeles. I report and edit visual stories, write Python and JavaScript and build systems that keep newsroom data current.
My work combines reporting, editing, software development, geospatial analysis, data visualization and technical leadership.
Portfolio · Résumé · CNN work · LinkedIn
- I own a collection of around 100 automated scripts that fetch and process data for CNN Visuals. They run on schedules in GitHub Actions, publish processed data to S3 and send status notifications to Slack.
- I conceived and built Bot Index, a searchable internal catalog that connects those pipelines to the live charts and trackers they feed.
- I manage technical staff and guide projects across editorial, design, product and engineering.
- I build and edit data-driven coverage of business, climate, health, politics and breaking news.
- ezesri extracts data and metadata from Esri REST endpoints and writes GeoJSON, Shapefile, GeoPackage or GeoParquet.
- pyfr24 fetches, analyzes and plots flight data from the Flightradar24 API.
- Hangar Bay updates, cleans and queries FAA's cumbersome national aircraft registry.
- Flight Tracer fetches, processes, stores and plots flight data from ADS-B Exchange.
- Mound retrieves and analyzes MLB pitch-level data from Python or the command line.
- streetview-dl downloads full-resolution Google Street View panoramas, including historical captures.
- chorokit makes beautiful choropleth maps with Python, Matplotlib and GeoPandas.
- locations gathers location details on prominent stores, restaurants and other places across the US.
- Their Names Fit is a reported register of aptronyms: people whose names are unusually suited to their work.
- Onion History is an automated archive of more than 35,000 headlines from The Onion.
- BirthdayRank.com explores which birthdays are common in the United States and which are rare.
- WhatsMyLA.com identifies the overlapping neighborhoods, districts and service boundaries for a Los Angeles address.
- The Daily Viz is my retired digital sketchpad for charts, maps and other data stories.
- FeelsLike.LA, a mobile-first weather product that answers one question: what will it feel like where I am in Los Angeles?
Before CNN, I worked at the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR and The Texas Tribune. I was the founding news applications editor at the Tribune and served as NPR's data editor. I also teach occasionally at the University of Southern California.
I contributed to the Los Angeles Times' coverage of the fatal shooting on the Rust film set, which was a staff finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting.
Python, pandas, GeoPandas, PostgreSQL, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, D3.js, Svelte, Mapbox GL, GitHub Actions, Jupyter and ai2html.
Email mattstiles@gmail.com.




