Magee started his career as a printer before working for VNU Business Publications on PC Dealer and then at their IT news venture, VNU Newswire. This was where I met him; his effective method proved a handful for his editors.
His technique was simple: He would disappear for most of the day and somehow write the lead story. If needed, he could be found in one of Soho’s nearby waterholes. If you were a good editor you learnt not to interfere.
He left the Newswire and co-founded The Register, the UK's first Internet-based IT tabloid, with John Lettice in 1994. Magee focused on computer chip reporting in the newsletter, and Lettice covered software.
"We realised the chip industry was worth about $200bn a year then, and we were down the pub one day and said, ‘Why don't we do a newsletter because we can and this is a big, big market, and nobody else seems to be doing much about it," Magee said.
The Rodgister used the slogan "Biting the Hand That Feeds IT" to reflect its iconoclastic attitude, attracting a following among IT professionals and investors.
In December 2000, Magee suffered a heart attack and died on the operating table only to revive and being told that he would have to do the same operation in ten years (he didn’t). When he returned to work, he stated publicly that he disagreed with the editorial direction of The Register.
He left to found The Inquirer, which reflected the original editorial philosophy. Unlike The Register, which received a lot of investment, The Inquirer received little financing but managed to make a profit. Magee was the only full-time employee. The entire magazine was based on freelance submissions, and staff and advertising were outsourced. Many technology journalists who got their start at the INQ owe something to Mike.
In 2006, Magee met with VNU leaders over their alleged use of a web layout similar to that of The Inquirer. Later that year, Magee sold The Inquirer to VNU. He remained as editor of The Inquirer until February 2008, when he left to pursue other publishing ventures, including TechEye and ChannelEye. He joined Fudzilla as Editor-at-Large in July 2016.
In 2009 the Daily Telegraph placed Magee 35 in its list of Top 50 most influential Britons in technology.
Mike was a poster child for ignoring the doctor’s advice. Despite some severe illness in later life, he continued his life as always.
While most people know about his fame as a tech industry gadfly, fewer are aware of his interest in the esoteric and the occult. This began with his work with Alistair Crowley’s secretary, Kenneth Grant.
In 1971, he started an occult fanzine called Azoth, and in 1973, in conjunction with David Hall and his then girlfriend Janet Bailey, he started a more ambitious six-monthly magazine called SOTHiS.
This brought him into contact with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Despite his fame, his accountant did not allow Page to have much money, so he approached Magee for a loan to buy an esoteric bookstore. The loan was never repaid.
In 1973, while on holiday, he had a lucid dream about the Indian goddess Kali, which left him keen to learn more about Indian traditions. After various mystical experiences, he became interested in the tantric tradition.
In 1977, he went to India and met with an English tantrik guru called HH Shri Gurudev Mahendranath (1911-1992) who was a guru (some say the last 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.
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 bringing Tantrik teachings to the West. In the UK, it had about 500 members.
In 1980, Mahendranath claimed, despite some evidence, that he had never given Magee the right to form AMOOKOS and the group fragmented. Magee went on to do his own thing, concentrating more on Tantra. He has also provided translations for Tantra website Shiva Shakti Mandalam.
He formed his own publishing company producing translations of Indian tantric texts.
He married Jan Bailey in a civil ceremony at Edgware Registry Office in 1978. Two witnesses were present, one of whom was pulled in from the Street. They had a son, Tamlin, who was an occasion Techeye writer.
Writing a mate’s obit is an arse. Whatever you want to write about, cannot do justice to a bloke who lived life to the full and made a difference to many. You want to write something like “I am sure he is in the heavenly Star and Garter with Dave Evans and others he worked with.” But that would dumb down someone who was incredibly complex and multifaceted. How can you be sad that someone who literally walked through Indian cemeteries to find a death goddess finally found what he was searching for?
Still it is an arse for the rest of the planet.