Greta Cross

Greta Cross covers national trending stories that connect technology, consumer life and internet culture, with an emphasis on how rapid shifts in digital tools and policy show up in everyday habits. She is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY with more than five years of journalism experience and a portfolio that spans consumer technology, retail, entertainment and social issues. Her work stands out for its service-driven framing - headlines that promise “what to know,” “what we know” and “see new features” - and for treating tech and business news as practical questions for ordinary users rather than abstract industry updates.

Consumer technology and AI in everyday life

Cross’s primary focus is consumer-facing technology, especially the tools and platforms that millions of people use every day. She reports on major AI products and outages, explaining what it means for users when services like ChatGPT and Claude go down and how quickly they return. Her technology coverage consistently centers on the user experience and reliability of tools, translating technical disruptions into clear guidance about what happened and how it affects people’s routines.

She follows Apple’s ecosystem closely, covering big launch events, expectations around devices like a possible foldable iPhone, and the rollout of new iOS versions alongside lists of compatible hardware.

In pieces about Apple’s spyware threat notifications, she breaks down opaque security alerts into direct reassurance and steps that readers can take, stressing that certain push alerts are genuine and worth attention. Cross also tracks emerging privacy-focused products, such as DuckDuckGo’s viral anti-AI sunglasses, treating them as part of a wider story about how individuals try to guard their likeness and data in an era of generative AI.

Beyond devices and apps, she reports on the physical infrastructure behind the internet, including data centers and the local backlash that large facilities can generate. In her work on America’s “NIMBY war” over data centers, she links community concerns, AI demand and energy use, showing how technical capacity is now a neighborhood issue as much as a corporate one.

Across these stories, Cross writes in straightforward language, focusing on concrete impacts - outages, new features, alerts, infrastructure - rather than jargon or futurist speculation.

Retail, subscriptions and consumer money stories

Cross regularly covers retail and subscription stories, treating corporate decisions as household budget news. She reports on closures and product changes at major chains, such as Starbucks shutting 250 locations, Kroger no longer selling Red Bull, and Target lowering prices on nearly 2,000 items.

These stories are framed around what customers can expect in their local stores and which products, categories or regions are affected, using “what we know” and “see reduced products” language to highlight confirmed details.

Her work also follows the logistics side of retail, including Target expanding next-day delivery to more cities and similar service upgrades that reshape how people shop.

In coverage of a city-level “click-to-cancel” subscription policy, she explains how new rules are meant to make canceling services as easy as signing up, focusing on streaming and delivery apps that many readers use. The common thread in these pieces is a practical view of money: corporate announcements are translated into specific changes in prices, availability and friction for consumers, rather than treated purely as business strategy.

Entertainment, sports and internet culture moments

Alongside tech and retail, Cross writes about entertainment franchises, viral personalities and list-driven culture stories that dominate feeds. She covers long-running shows such as “The Voice,” detailing premiere dates, broadcast times and coaching lineups so viewers can orient themselves for a new season.

Her coverage of features like Forbes’ “Greatest Self-Made Americans” presents ranked lists in an accessible way, emphasizing who is included and why the compilation is drawing attention.

She also writes human-interest pieces tied to global events, such as a story on Merlin the duck, described as Mexico’s World Cup superfan, where a single quirky character becomes the lens on a major tournament. That blend of sports, personality and social media visibility matches her broader interest in internet culture, making space for stories that sit between hard news and pure lifestyle. Across these topics, Cross keeps the tone direct and fact-focused, emphasizing dates, formats and specific details over commentary.

LGBTQ+, marijuana and social-issues reporting

Outside day-to-day trending assignments, Cross maintains recurring sub-beats around the LGBTQ+ community, the marijuana industry and Gen Z social media trends. She identifies these areas as central to her work, suggesting a sustained commitment to covering how policy, culture and commerce intersect for marginalized and younger audiences. Her experience includes participation in USA TODAY’s death penalty coverage team in 2024 and early 2025, adding a justice and accountability dimension to a portfolio more often associated with tech and consumer stories.

Beyond the newsroom, she hosts and produces a podcast exploring drag communities in rural areas, extending her reporting interest in LGBTQ+ topics into audio storytelling. Taken together, these strands show a reporter who moves easily between explaining AI outages, tracking retail price shifts and documenting communities and policies that shape people’s lives on and offline.