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The Register (often also called El Reg[1]) is a British technology news website[2] co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee and John Lettice.[3] The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "Biting the hand that feeds IT." The publication's primary focus is information technology news and opinions.[4]

Key Information

Situation Publishing Ltd is the site's publisher. Drew Cullen is an owner and Linus Birtles is the managing director. Andrew Orlowski was the executive editor before leaving the website in May 2019.[5]

History

[edit]

The Register was founded in London as an email newsletter called Chip Connection. In 1998 The Register became a daily online news source. Magee left in 2001 to start competing publications The Inquirer, and later the IT Examiner and TechEye.[6]

In 2002, The Register expanded to have a presence in London and San Francisco, creating The Register USA at theregus.com through a joint venture with Tom's Hardware.[7] In 2003, that site moved to theregister.com.[8] That content was later merged onto theregister.co.uk. The Register carries syndicated content including Simon Travaglia's BOFH stories.[9]

In 2010 The Register supported the successful launch of the Paper Aircraft Released into Space, a project they announced in 2009 that released a paper plane in the extreme upper atmosphere.[10]

The Register also ran the websites Register Hardware and Channel Register, which merged into The Register.

Readership and content

[edit]

In 2011 it was read daily by over 350,000 users according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations,[11] rising to 468,000 daily and nearly 9.5 million monthly in 2013.[12] In November 2011 the UK and US each accounted for approximately 42% and 34% of page impressions respectively, with Canada being the next most significant origin of page hits at 3%.[11] In 2012 the UK and US accounted for approximately 41% and 28% of page impressions respectively, with Canada at 3.61%.[12]

Channel Register covers computer business and trade news, which includes business press releases. News and articles for computer hardware and consumer electronics are covered by Reg Hardware. Reg Research is an in-depth resource on technologies and how they relate to business.[13][14]

Their stories are cited by major news sources[15] and also used for backup information.[2][16] Stories in other periodicals were based on their exposés.[17] For instance, InformationWeek ran a story about The Register's story, as used as the source for a New York Times article.[18]

In September 2018, the Alexa ranking was #7,194.[19]

National Archives and Records Administration has archived part of the Web site.[20]

Writers

[edit]

The Register has an editorial staff of about 20 writers and production experts around the world.[21] Matt Rosoff is editor-in-chief. Paul Kunert is EMEA editor, Avram Piltch is US editor and Simon Sharwood is Asia-Pacific editor. Columnists include Mark Pesce and Rupert Goodwins.

Intel chips flaw investigation

[edit]
Further information: Intel Atom § Issues, Meltdown (security vulnerability), and Spectre (security vulnerability)

On 6 February 2017, The Register linked a clock signal issue in Cisco hardware to a serious defect on Intel's Atom C2000 series processors.[22][23]

Around 3 January 2018, The Register broke news about Google's long-ongoing investigation into Intel's processor design, which revealed that a serious flaw in the design of their chips would require Microsoft, Apple, and Linux developers to release patches for their operating systems.[24]

Criticism

[edit]

On 12 October 2010 Martin Robbins of The Guardian accused The Register of misunderstanding climate science and misrepresenting a paper from the journal Nature in a manner that deliberately minimized the climate impact of human emissions.[25] The Register published its "amusingly put-out 'response'" the same day.[26]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

The Register

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia

The Register (commonly nicknamed El Reg) is a British and opinion co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice, and Ross Alderson as an occasional email newsletter in , which began daily online publication in 1998. Owned and operated by Situation Publishing Ltd., it provides independent coverage of enterprise , including , , services, , and storage, alongside off-duty topics such as , , and tech culture. The site targets IT professionals, decision-makers, developers, and policy experts, reaching approximately 40 million readers worldwide through journalists based in America, , Asia-Pacific, and Britain. Its defining characteristic is a playfully sarcastic and skeptical tone, encapsulated in the motto "biting the hand that feeds IT," which critiques industry hype, corporate overreach, and government policies affecting technology. Notable features include the long-running satirical (BOFH) column, which humorously depicts IT workplace absurdities, contributing to its reputation for irreverent, contrarian that prioritizes empirical scrutiny over promotional narratives. This approach has sustained its editorial independence amid consolidations in tech media, fostering a loyal readership valuing substantive over mainstream .

Founding and Early Development

Origins in 1990s Tech Journalism

The Register was co-founded in 1994 by technology journalists Mike Magee and John Lettice, both veterans of print media coverage on computer hardware and software respectively. This initiative emerged during a period of accelerating adoption of personal computers and nascent internet technologies in the early 1990s, when global IT developments were increasingly relevant to UK audiences but often filtered through U.S.-dominated or traditional print outlets. Magee, specializing in microprocessor advancements, and Lettice, focused on software ecosystems, identified opportunities to provide direct, unmediated reporting on these trends without the delays inherent in print publishing cycles. Drawing from their experiences with established UK tech periodicals, the founders envisioned an outlet that could offer a distinctly British lens on international hardware and software innovations, filling voids left by slower, more conventional . Mainstream tech reporting at the time, largely confined to monthly magazines, struggled to keep pace with rapid silicon and networking breakthroughs, prompting Magee and Lettice to pioneer an digital-first approach. By opting for an format from inception—initially as a web-accessible resource rather than print—they circumvented distribution limitations and editorial gatekeeping of legacy media, enabling real-time dissemination of IT intelligence tailored for European professionals. This setup positioned The Register as one of the 's earliest dedicated ventures, capitalizing on the World Wide Web's expansion to deliver specialized content unbound by physical media constraints.

Launch and Initial Growth

The Register originated in 1994 as an occasional email newsletter in , co-founded by Mike Magee, John Lettice, and Ross Alderson, with an initial emphasis on news covering hardware, software, and enterprise developments. It operated in this format amid the burgeoning sector of the mid-1990s, providing commentary on emerging tech trends before expanding its delivery mechanism. The site shifted to daily online publishing in , marking its formal web-based launch under the ownership of Situation Publishing, which holds the copyright from that year onward. This transition aligned with the dot-com boom's peak, a period from roughly 1995 to 2000 characterized by speculative investments and rapid expansion in internet-related enterprises, alongside preparations for the Y2K millennium bug that heightened scrutiny of vulnerabilities. Concurrently, increasing broadband adoption in the late facilitated greater access to online content, contributing to the site's audience buildup among technology professionals seeking timely enterprise IT updates. Initial growth accelerated through consistent coverage of critical tech industry events, including scrutiny of major vendors, as the publication established itself as a dedicated online resource by the early . By the mid-, The Register had developed a global journalistic footprint, with contributors across America, , , and Britain, reflecting its evolution from newsletter origins to a sustained enterprise technology news platform.

Editorial Operations and Content Focus

Core Topics and Coverage Areas

The Register focuses on enterprise technology news, prioritizing domains such as , , semiconductors, and for IT professionals and decision-makers. Its coverage addresses cyber threats, vulnerabilities, patches, and into defensive measures, reflecting patterns of frequent articles on breaches and strategies. Storage topics encompass hardware advancements, software-defined solutions, and enterprise deployment challenges, with ongoing reporting on flash and related technologies. Semiconductors receive attention through analyses of processor designs, custom for , and dynamics. Enterprise software features prominently, including developments in operating systems, , and application management tools tailored for business environments. A distinctive element is the regular "BOFH" series, a satirical column chronicling fictional misadventures of a systems administrator, which has appeared periodically since the site's early years to inject humor into technical discourse. Regulatory impacts on technology form another core area, with reporting on policies like EU digital regulations and processes affecting . As of 2025, coverage has expanded into artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and heightened cyber threats, evidenced by articles on AI governance, cloud security implementations, and evolving threat landscapes amid geopolitical tensions. This reflects empirical shifts in article output toward emerging enterprise priorities, such as secure AI deployment and resilient cloud architectures.

Distinctive Writing Style and Tone

The Register employs an irreverent tone marked by puns, , and the affectionate "El Reg" to dissect tech industry developments, often targeting hype-driven narratives around innovations. This approach critiques overpromising technologies, as exemplified in its examination of Gartner's Hype Cycle methodology, which the site portrays as fueling exaggerated sentiment rather than grounded assessments of tech maturity. The style integrates humor with substantive analysis, emphasizing causal factors in tech outcomes—such as flaws or market dynamics—over promotional spin, thereby challenging uncritical acceptance of claims prevalent in other outlets. appears in commentary on trends like AI databases sourced from social platforms, underscoring limitations without deferring to optimistic projections. From its origins in boisterous tech commentary, the publication has shifted toward tempered scrutiny post-2010, retaining wit but incorporating deeper empirical dissection in response to reader preferences for balanced insight over unrelenting mockery. This evolution maintains differentiation from more deferential mainstream coverage, prioritizing verifiable mechanics of failure or success in hardware, software, and policy intersections.

Key Contributors and Staff

Mike Magee, John Lettice, and Ross Alderson co-founded The Register in 1994, establishing its foundational approach to technology reporting characterized by skepticism toward corporate narratives and a focus on insider industry dynamics. Magee, who emphasized hardware and vendor accountability in early coverage, died on August 11, 2024, at age 60 after a battle with cancer. Lettice contributed to the site's initial emphasis on legal and regulatory aspects of , while Alderson supported operational setup; their combined vision shaped the publication's resistance to hype-driven tech discourse. Chris Williams joined in 2011 as a correspondent and advanced through roles including copy editor, editor, and from 2018 to 2025, overseeing content strategy during periods of intense scrutiny on processor vulnerabilities and shifts. Iain Thomson, a cybersecurity specialist, reported from the for nearly 15 years until his departure in October 2025, delivering expertise on threats ranging from software exploits to hardware design weaknesses. Simon Travaglia has authored the long-running BOFH () series since its syndication on the site, offering pseudonymous, satirical commentary on systems administration and IT workplace absurdities that has endured as a reader favorite for over two decades. Recent editorial transitions include Matt Rosoff assuming the role in 2025, alongside specialized positions such as Systems Editor Tobias Mann and a dedicated Cybersecurity Editor, signaling adaptations to persistent digital risks amid staff turnover.

Notable Investigative Reporting

Intel Processor Design Flaw Breakthrough (2018)

On January 2, 2018, The Register published a report revealing a fundamental design flaw in processors, stemming from the company's implementation of —a performance optimization technique that predicts and executes instructions ahead of confirmation. The article, drawing on analysis from security researcher Anders Fogh and corroborated by Google's investigations, described how the flaw enabled unauthorized access to kernel memory, potentially leaking sensitive data like passwords across affected systems. This disclosure highlighted the need for major operating system redesigns, including changes to and Windows kernels to insert barriers preventing speculative reads of protected memory regions, with projected performance overheads ranging from 5 to 30 percent depending on workload. The reporting preceded the coordinated public announcement of the Meltdown vulnerability by major stakeholders—including , , , and others—scheduled for January 3, 2018, after months of private coordination to develop mitigations. The Register's early coverage, based on empirical technical demonstrations rather than manufacturer disclosures, exposed 's architectural prioritization of speed via aggressive , which inadvertently weakened hardware-enforced memory isolation boundaries present in competing designs like processors. The flaw impacted x86 chips dating back to models from the mid-1990s, exposing an estimated billions of devices to risks of side-channel attacks where malicious code could infer privileged data through timing variations in cache behavior. Subsequent Register articles tracked mitigation efforts, such as Google's "retpoline" technique—a software workaround using return trampolines to restrict indirect branch speculation without broadly disabling the feature, implemented in Linux kernel 4.14 and later. Coverage also addressed industry fallout, including Intel's microcode updates and the broader Spectre variants affecting non-Intel architectures, underscoring persistent challenges in patching hardware-level causal vulnerabilities through software alone, as new exploitation paths emerged in return stack buffers and branch target predictors. This sustained focus demonstrated The Register's emphasis on verifiable technical causality over corporate narratives, influencing public and developer scrutiny of processor design trade-offs.

Other Major Exposés and Scoops

In August 2023, The Register detailed the Downfall vulnerability (CVE-2022-40982), a flaw in processors spanning Skylake (6th generation) to (11th generation) architectures, enabling attackers to extract sensitive data such as passwords and encryption keys from the CPU's micro-op cache via branch target mispredictions. This reporting highlighted the exploit's potential to affect billions of devices despite mitigations, underscoring ongoing risks from hardware-level optimizations prioritizing performance over isolation. In May 2025, The Register covered Branch Privilege Injection (BPI), a novel attack exploiting race conditions to bypass Spectre v2 hardware mitigations on CPUs, allowing user-mode code to inject elevated-privilege branch predictions and leak kernel data. Researchers from disclosed the vulnerability after an embargo, noting its impact on processors from Coffee Lake Refresh onward, with issuing microcode updates to delay predictor updates and reduce leakage risks. The coverage emphasized how asynchronous predictor operations create exploitable timing gaps, fueling discussions on balancing hardware transparency with innovation incentives amid repeated transient execution flaws. The Register has scrutinized cloud practices, reporting in April 2024 on how proprietary APIs and barriers trap enterprises in ecosystems dominated by hyperscalers like AWS and Azure, often escalating costs without equivalent value. This analysis aligned with broader efforts under the Data Act, effective September 2025, which mandates fair data access and switching terms to curb such dependencies, though The Register noted providers' tendencies to pass compliance costs to users via transfer fees. On tech regulatory overreach, The Register critiqued provisions in the Data Act and related policies for imposing burdensome interoperability rules on services, potentially stifling by favoring incumbents able to absorb compliance overhead while smaller firms face barriers. Coverage highlighted risks of unintended vendor entrenchment, where mandates for and controls—intended to prevent lock-in—could instead amplify legal complexities and drag, as evidenced by hyperscalers' preemptive adjustments to European offerings.

Audience Engagement and Industry Influence

Readership Profile and Metrics

The readership of The Register primarily comprises technology professionals, including IT decision makers, C-suite executives, software developers, sysadmins, technologists, and policy experts engaged with enterprise tech topics such as AI, services, hardware, and cybersecurity. Readers often include CIOs and enterprise IT teams valuing in-depth, practical coverage over consumer-oriented hype. This niche attracts tech-savvy individuals skeptical of narratives, prioritizing empirical analysis of industry developments. Geographically, the audience is global with core bases in the United States, , and , extending to , , , and other regions. Demographically, visitors skew heavily male at 76.06%, with the largest age group being 25-34 years old, aligning with early- to mid-career IT professionals. Annual reach stands at approximately 40 million readers worldwide, underscoring steady appeal amid shifting digital landscapes. Monthly traffic metrics as of October 2025 report around 2.6 million visits in the US market alone, supporting high engagement through repeat access for specialized content like security alerts.

Impact on Tech Discourse and Policy

The Register's early reporting on the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities in January 2018 amplified awareness of fundamental flaws in processor architectures, prompting to announce CPU redesigns by March 2018 to mitigate side-channel attacks. This coverage, which detailed how enabled data leaks across , , and chips, contributed to industry-wide mitigations, including kernel redesigns in and Windows, and influenced subsequent hardware accountability standards. In policy debates, The Register has critiqued digital regulations for prioritizing compliance over innovation, such as highlighting business calls to pause AI rules amid competition from less-regulated U.S. firms in July 2025. Its analysis of the EU AI Act's approval in May 2024 underscored burdens on enterprises, fostering discourse on how precautionary approaches may hinder technological advancement compared to market-driven alternatives. The outlet's skepticism toward tech sector greenwashing has shaped environmental claims scrutiny, as seen in its 2021 reporting on tech groups warning against unsubstantiated assertions and 2024 surveys showing IT professionals dismissing vendor hype in favor of practical metrics. This stance counters promotional narratives, emphasizing empirical data on energy use and offsets over vague pledges. During the 2025 AI investment surge, The Register countered mainstream acclaim for by questioning bubble risks and advocating regulatory reins, including coverage of calls for generative AI boycotts to curb dominance in October 2024. Such reporting highlights cash-flow strains from AI —projected at $100 billion for alone—and promotes balanced evaluation over hype, influencing investor and policymaker caution.

Criticisms and Evolving Reputation

Shifts in Editorial Direction

In the 1990s and early 2000s, The Register exemplified a distinctly irreverent tone in , featuring satirical commentary, puns, and tabloid-esque flair under co-founder Mike Magee, who established this approach before departing in 2001. This style defined its output during the dot-com era, prioritizing sharp critique over neutral reporting. Post-2001, the site experienced a perceptible toward greater balance and , with reduced emphasis on overt snark evident in article archives from the onward. By the 2020s, as readership expanded, content increasingly incorporated analytical depth alongside humor, reflecting adaptations to sustain growth in a competitive landscape. Forum discussions, including on , captured reader dissatisfaction with this dilution of irreverence, linking it to editorial professionalization and broader audience pressures rather than core mission drift. The site's editor has acknowledged such feedback while defending the pivot as necessary for viability. Core skeptical stances persisted, as seen in ongoing critiques of tech-sector overreach, such as dismissals of moralizing AI frameworks that prioritize persuasion over utility. This continuity underscores strategic refinements over wholesale abandonment of foundational attitudes.

Debates Over Bias and Objectivity

Independent media bias evaluators have assessed The Register as among the least biased outlets in tech journalism, with rating it "Least Biased" due to minimal editorializing and "High" for factual reporting based on a clean fact check record devoid of failed verifications or retractions for misinformation. Similarly, Biasly assigns it a near-center bias score of 2%, reflecting balanced policy leanings and low reliance on in articles. These ratings contrast with more polarized tech media peers, where often overshadows , and underscore The Register's emphasis on verifiable sourcing over narrative-driven commentary. Critics from left-leaning perspectives have occasionally accused The Register of an anti-regulatory slant, pointing to its coverage skeptical of expansive interventions in tech, such as open letters urging caution on rules or warnings that heavy enforcement could stifle generative AI innovation. These viewpoints attribute a pro-business or libertarian undertone to such reporting, arguing it downplays risks of unchecked corporate power. However, empirical analyses find no corresponding pattern of factual distortions, with defenses emphasizing the outlet's reliance on evidence from outcomes—like regulatory thickets impeding technological progress—rather than ideological priors. Conversely, observers aligned with right-leaning or free-market perspectives commend The Register for exposing instances of corporate-government , such as in antitrust suits alleging rent price-fixing algorithms that enable coordination beyond competitive norms. This coverage is seen as bolstering accountability without deference to establishment narratives. Claims of occasional favoritism surface sporadically, often in older critiques of specific articles, but lack substantiation through fact-check discrepancies or systemic patterns, remaining anecdotal against the outlet's overall record of vendor-agnostic in and tech policy exposés.

References

  1. https://www.theregister.com/Profile/about_the_register/
  2. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/the-register
  3. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-register-uk/
  4. https://talkingbiznews.com/biz-news-help-wanted/the-register-seeks-tech-news-reporters-in-san-francisco/
  5. https://www.theregister.com/
  6. https://pressgazette.co.uk/archive-content/how-online-journalism-got-its-uk-start/
  7. https://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/uks-pioneering-publisher-mike-magee-launches-indian-based-it-publication/
  8. https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/microsoft_silicon_security/
  9. https://blocksandfiles.com/2025/10/24/storage-news-ticker-oct-24/
  10. https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/101cuqz/what_happened_to_the_register/
  11. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32778803
  12. https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/19/gartner_hype_cycle/
  13. https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2017/04/24/computer_scientists_sarcasm_database/
  14. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395331/why-is-there-a-note-on-my-boot
  15. https://fudzilla.com/news/59503-mike-mageek-is-dead
  16. https://muckrack.com/media-outlet/theregister
  17. https://www.theregister.com/Author/Chris-Williams/
  18. https://talkingbiznews.com/media-news/register-tech-reporter-thomson-departs/
  19. https://www.theregister.com/Author/Iain-Thomson/
  20. https://www.theregister.com/Author/Simon-Travaglia/
  21. https://www.theregister.com/Profile/contact/
  22. https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/
  23. https://www.theregister.com/2018/08/09/meltdown_spectre_cert_timing/
  24. https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/04/intel_amd_arm_cpu_vulnerability/
  25. https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/05/spectre_flaws_explained/
  26. https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/09/google_intel_downfall/
  27. https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/13/intel_spectre_race_condition/
  28. https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/cloud_vendor_opinion_column/
  29. https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/10/big_clouds_scramble_over_eu/
  30. https://prlab.co/blog/top-media-outlets-for-news-coverage/
  31. https://www.similarweb.com/website/theregister.com/
  32. https://www.semrush.com/website/theregister.com/overview/
  33. https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/04/intel_meltdown_spectre_bugs_the_registers_annotations/
  34. https://incibe.es/en/incibe-cert/publications/cybersecurity-highlights/meltdown-and-spectre-vulnerabilities-modern-processors
  35. https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/04/eu_businesses_push_for_freedom/
  36. https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/21/prepare_your_audits_eu_commission/
  37. https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/20/uk_tech_sector_green_cred_warning/
  38. https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/28/register_it_sustainability/
  39. https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/03/ai_bubble_watch_markets/
  40. https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/21/gary_marcus_ai_interview/
  41. https://www.firstlinks.com.au/simple-maths-says-the-ai-investment-boom-is-doomed
  42. https://kasacomms.com/meet-the-journalist-mike-magee/
  43. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32781078
  44. https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/20/ai_moral_persuasion/
  45. https://www.biasly.com/sources/theregister-media-bias/
  46. https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/24/ai_safety_regulation_open_letter/
  47. https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/24/generative_ai_death/
  48. https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/23/feds_sue_realpage/
  49. https://thomashawk.com/2005/11/andrew-orlowski-and-register-bad.html
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