Career
He is credited with introducing a tabloid-style approach to the coverage of technology news. In 2009 the Daily Telegraph placed Magee 35 in its list of Top 50 most influential Britons in technology. Magee co-founded technology news website The Register in 1994.
In 2001 he left to found The Inquirer.
In 2010 he launched technology website TechEye. and in February 2013 he launched a new title for the channel called "ChannelEye. Magee has written since the 1960s on matters related to occult and esoteric religions.
In 1971 he started a small occult magazine called Azoth, and in 1973 in conjunction with David Hall, and his girlfriend Janet Bailey, started a more ambitious six monthly magazine called SOTHiS. In 1978, he went to India and met with an English tantrik guru (and former student of Aleister Crowley) called HH Shri Gurudev Mahendranath (1911–1992) who was a guru of the Uttarakaula Tantric Order of northern India. Mahendranath gave him the title of a guru and a charter to form a group of students.
Magee took the tantrik name of Lokanath.
Later this was to become a nucleus for the "Arcane Magical Order of the Knights of Shambhala" (AMOOKOS). This group was highly influential, particularly in the way it bought Tantrik teachings to the West. In the United Kingdom it had about 500 members.
In 1990, Mahendranath claimed, despite some evidence to the contrary, that he had not ever given Magee the right to form AMOOKOS and the group fragmented.
Magee worked for Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen Business Publications on Personal Computer Dealer before working at their Information Technology news venture Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen Newswire. He left the Newswire and co-founded The Register, the United Kingdom"s first Internet-based Information Technology tabloid, with John Lettice in 1994.
In the newsletter, Magee focused on computer chip reporting, and Lettice covered software. The Register used the slogan "Biting the Hand That Feeds Information Technology" to reflect its iconoclastic attitude, attracting a following among Information Technology professionals and investors.
In December 2000, Magee suffered a heart attack.
When he returned to work, he stated publicly that he disagreed with the editorial direction of The Register. He left to found The Inquirer to reflect the original editorial philosophy. Unlike The Register, which had substantial capital investment, The Inquirer received little financing, but still managed to make a profit.
Magee was the only full-time employee.
The entire magazine was based on freelance submissions, and staff and its advertising were outsourced. In 2006 Magee met with Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen leaders over their alleged use of a web layout similar to that of The Inquirer.
Magee sold The Inquirer to Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen later that year. Magee remained as editor of The Inquirer until February 2008, when he left to pursue other publishing ventures including TechEye.