The newsworthiness of the piece is probablity in the rarity of Torvalds giving an interview.

Note that the article doesn't say "Legendary programmer", it says "Founder of one of the most deployed piece of software in the world". It speaks to people who aren't tech-savvy, who may be interested in who's behind (part of) the software in their smartphone or in their TV (even though it isn't mentioned in the article, people may have heard of that project more than the man)