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. 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. In 2003, that site moved to theregister.com. That content was later merged onto theregister.co.uk. The Register carries syndicated content including Simon Travaglia's BOFH stories. 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. Editorial staffers include Paul Kunert, Gavin Clarke, Joe Fay, Chris Williams, Iain Thomson and Simon Sharwood. Jude Karabus is head of production.
Readership and content
In 2011 it was read daily by over 350,000 users according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, rising to 468,000 daily and nearly 9.5 million monthly in 2013. 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%. In 2012 the UK and US accounted for approximately 41% and 28% of page impressions respectively, with Canada at 3.61%. In September 2018, the Alexa ranking was #7,194. Channel Register covers computer business and trade news, which includes business press releases. News and articles for computer hardware and consumer electronics is covered by Reg Hardware. Reg Research is an in-depth resource on technologies and how they relate to business.
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, Linux and Apple to update operating systems for computers around the world.
Criticism/controversy
The Register has written both headlines and stories that have resulted in a flame war with The Guardian, which, using the Private Eye nickname, the former refers to as The Grauniad. Using a style illustrated by Gawker's 2008 coverage of Sun-Sentinel's involvement in a short term stock drop, The Register used to, The Guardian accused, "seriously misrepresent" a Nature paper in a controversial manner.
