Ars Technica is a website for news and opinion on technology, science, politics, and society, founded in 1998 by Ken Fisher and John Stokes. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on topics such as computer hardware and software, science and technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica was privately held until May 2008, when it was sold to Condé Nast Digital, the online division of Condé Nast Publications. Condé Nast purchased the site along with two others for $25 million and added it to its Wired Digital group. This group also includes Wired and the former Reddit. Most of our employees work from home, and we have offices in Boston, Chicago, London, New York and San Francisco. Ars Technica is funded primarily by advertising and has offered a paid subscription service since 2001.
History.
The website’s current managing editors, Ken Fisher and John Stokes, founded Ars Technica in 1998. Its goal was to publish news articles and guides related to computer hardware and software. In their own words, it’s about fun, productivity, and providing the most accurate information possible, covering the best possible OS, computer hardware, and technology. “Ars technica” means “technical art” in Latin. This website had news, reviews, guides, and other content of interest to computer enthusiasts. At the time, Ars Technica’s authors were geographically distributed across the United States. Fisher lived in his parents’ house in Boston, Stokes in Chicago, and the other writers in their respective cities. On May 19, 2008, Ars Technica was sold to Condé Nast Digital, the online division of Condé Nast Publishing. The sale was part of Condé Nast Digital’s acquisition of three unaffiliated websites – Ars Technica, Webmonkey and HotWired – for a total of $25 million. Ars Technica was added to the Wired Digital group, which includes Wired and Reddit. In an interview with The New York Times, Fisher said that other companies offered to buy Ars Technica, but the site’s authors agreed to make a deal with Condé Nast because Condé Nast was their “hobby.”
Content.
The content of the articles published by Ars Technica has remained virtually unchanged since its inception in 1998 and is divided into four types: news, how-to, reviews, and features. News articles cover current events. Ars Technica also hosts OpenForum, a free online forum for discussing various topics. Initially, most of the news articles published on the website were collected from other technology websites. Ars Technica provided a short commentary (usually a few paragraphs) on the news and a link to the original source. After being acquired by Condé Nast, Ars Technica began publishing more original news, researching topics independently and interviewing sources. Today, most of the news articles published there are original. Broadcast news is still published on the website in one or two sentences to several paragraphs. Ars Technica contains long, in-depth articles on the subject. For example, in 1998, this site published a guide to CPU architecture called “Understanding CPU Cache and Performance”. A 2009 article discusses the theory, physics, mathematical proofs, and applications of quantum computers. An 18,000-word review of Apple’s original iPad on the website explains everything from the product’s packaging to the specific types of integrated circuits used. Ars Technica is written in a less formal tone than traditional magazines. Many of the website’s regular contributors have advanced degrees, and many work at universities or private research institutions.