Magee graduated from Upper Iowa University in 1896.
He also patented the first parking meter which was installed for use. Magee founded the Magee"s Independent in 1922, which would change its name to the New Mexico State Tribune in 1923 and to the Albuquerque Tribune in 1933. The Tribune became defunct in 2008.
Magee was important in bringing the Teapot Dome Scandal to the fore.
When a judge Magee had once accused of corruption knocked him down in a hotel lobby, Magee drew his pistol and fired, accidentally killing a bystander. Magee was acquitted of manslaughter, but moved to Oklahoma City to run the Oklahoma News.
He was the paper"s editor until he was transferred to the Oklahoma City News. Magee switched from Republican to Democrat and ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate.
He is best known in journalism today for the East.W. Scripps Company motto, adopted from Dante for the Albuquerque Tribune and which is now carried by all Scripps chain newspapers: “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”
Magee died in Tulsa, Oklahoma in February 1946.