I consume a lot of writing. 3 years ago this used to be cycling through the same 5 websites over and over but since I’ve moved over to RSS I’ve been able to spread out my reading to a whole bunch of smaller sites that brighten my days and I’d be gutted if any of them stopped publishing.
I’m not very good about shouting from the heavens about these people because they’re just the norm for me, but this is an attempt to showcase them, and be a living document that I update semi-regularly.
The list is ordered entirely subjectively depending on how high I think they should be up the list.
Last update: May 2026
News Sites
Aftermath
Aftermath is a rare gem to be cherished. A gaming/tech written-first news outlet coming from a leftist, labour led perspective. I have so much respect for what they don’t choose to cover, avoiding the hype, and only covering industry drama when it actually has wider ramifications.
Their writing is also fun to read! It’s a laugh to crack jokes about the latest dumb thing a tech guy said about AI (although they do it in moderation, thankfully). And yet their features cover stories that other publications would brush over with the seriousness that they deserve, from a human-centric perspective.
404 Media
404 Media comes from the same perspective as Aftermath, and although I consider them more important I read them a lot less. This is mostly to preserve my mental health from the absolute torrent of tech-related horrors they report on, anything from the relationship between ICE in the US and Palantir, to the migraine inducing experience of having to plan a wedding in the TikTok age.
ICE Agents Have List of 20 Million People on Their iPhones Thanks to Palantir
I Almost Lost My Mind in the Bridal Algorithm
Ian Visits
Moving onto something more local, IanVisits is my saviour for local happenings and transport related news. London news is at the centre of a Reach infested hellhole, and every google search about transport disruption or upgrades is full of SEO optimised bullshit that hides the answer deep in the 7th paragrah.
IanVisits is a breath of fresh air for keeping his articles concise, to the point, and adding the context that a lot of others don’t. He also has a few interesting long running series on Pocket Parks and Alleys, has an events page that contains a wide selection of things you wouldn’t find otherwise, and has the occasional fascinating feature.
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/ 1
The Fence
The only way I can describe The Fence is as one of the UK’s last bastions of Weird Magazine Writing. Its politics and vibe is a little middle class/yuppy for my taste but the great quality of writing regularly breaks through.
I don’t think it makes the cut for a second entry but their Capital Letter newsletter on London’s goings on is also worth a look, although it has just gone pay to read on Substack.
Ars Technica
Ars used to fit where 404/Aftermath did on my rankings before they were setup a few years ago, and covers Tech, Popular Media and the surrounding sphere. It has a much larger bench of reporters and therefore covers much more news than the aforementioned, but I’ve been doing some heavy filtering in my RSS reader to skip topics that I don’t need to read (more) about (Google product update, Cars, AI, US Politics etc). It’s political slant and writing style is also a tad more professional and they’re a little more politically restrained (until Beth Mole starts firing on all cylinders).
Eric Berger’s fantastic rocketry reporting is worth pulling out as well. Starliner’s flight to the space station was far wilder than most of us thought
The Needle
A brand new (to me) one to round this out! This is 100% recency bias, but I just wanted to pull out The Needle’s wonderful profile on November Kelly, one of the Podcasters of all time. Otherwise they do seem to cover the usual ‘everything’s mostly going to hell in a handbasket’ trans beat, so make sure to read them as your capacity allows. November Reign
Blogs
Diamond Geezer
The Blogger of all time. Writing multiple hundred words almost every day since the early 2002, the sheer variety of his writing is an absolute treat. A particular highlight are his incredibly high-effort series, from visiting every 1x1km square in london to his oh let’s just link to his list of lists. A favourite of mine is his regular Anorak Corner series every time a new set of ridership statistics is released.
And I would have been obsessed with the blog if I’d known about him during the build up to the London 2012 games, which his coverage of serves as an incredibly detailed reporting from a local’s perspective. Olympics 2012
Chris Person (also Aftermath)
This could be called out as cheating but I write the list so shut up. I want to pull out Chris Person’s writing from Aftermath as my favourite practical technology blog for freaks. And I mean technology in it’s most raw form covering anything from jailbreaking Amazon Echo’s to nose hair trimmers. (I have bought both on his advice and they have both turned out to be amazing.)
The Amazon Echo Show Obeys Me Now
Nothing But Respect For This Manual Ear And Nose Hair Trimmers
Dirty Feed (and the Dirty Digest Newsletter)
John Hoare somehow makes long pieces about televisions shows that aired before I have born and never watched absolutely fascinating. I’m not really sure how to sell it better than that. His best of 2025 list, take your pick!
He also has written an incredible piece on how his job, Playout Director works. One of those behind the scenes roles that always sit at the forefront of my mind whenever I’m watching linear TV.
The Ranty Highwayman
I don’t read this blog as much and I want to, but that’s mostly because it’s a very rare blog that goes into too much detail for me, but if you’re freaky for highway/urban design I’d definitely recommend giving it a go.
His piece on floating bus stops is one worth keeping in your back pocket for when that topic inevitably gets brought up (if you’re in the same circles as me, at least).
Notes on the Crises
Another one that’s incredibly in-depth, and one that’s notable because often it’s the only in depth source on its topics anywhere.
Very expensive to read when things are going well politically in the U.S., but free and vital to read when things are going horribly wrong. During the heart of the D.O.G.E. crisis Nathan was one of the only people with the knowledge and contacts to understand exactly how Musk and his teenage goons were ripping apart America’s financial plumbing to sell the copper.
Inside the Archives - BFI
A simple but wonderful weekly blog on what the BFI Archives department get up to! Inside the Archive #68: Reflections on archiving asexuality
brr
Bottom of the list just because the blog’s come to its natural end, a wonderful series of posts covering the nuts and bolts of living at the South Pole. Laundry at the End of the World
Doric Literary
And bottom only because I’ve only read one of their posts, but I’ve been meaning to read more short fiction and along comes a wonderfully simple site full of classically inspired short stories. Looking forward to digging in more!
Newsletters
Car Science / Behind the Bar
Two wildly different careers have led to two wonderful newsletters on two very different topics.
Car Science was (is?) a blog about well, the science of cars. Based lefty politics despite the topic, fun to read, and written by someone who knows their stuff. It’s in hibernation at the moment but Hazel has a history of nerdsniping me with a great piece of science writing when I least expect it.
Behind the Bar is written from Hazel’s new job as a Publican (you get a special government issued photo ID and I Want One), on the front lines of whatever is attempting to kill British pubs next. (Diageo fucking up, shit government policy, Diageo fucking up again).
(please can someone give hazel infinity money to own and run the queer-and-local-community-micro-craft-pub-slash-hulking-five-bar-monster of my dreams)
London Centric
The relative newcomer but runaway hit of the London news scene, Jim and Polly have been doing some absolutely vital reporting that just wasn’t getting done since Reach and others gutted local journalism. I just wish it wasn’t run through Substack.
https://www.londoncentric.media/
It’s also worth noting that there’s a long list of incredibly hard working local bloggers covering specific hyper-local news, have a google and try and find your local! The Greenwich Wire is the closest to home for me.
Kate Wagner
Like Hazel, another wide ranging writer but this time covering Architecture, Criticism and Wagner. To be honest I keep setting these aside as posts to read when I’ve got more brainpower and then forget about them (grr ADHD), but in assembling this I’ve just seen a few posts that I really must get back to.
https://www.late-review.com/ https://mcmansionhell.com/ https://wehwalt.net/
Transfer Orbit
As you can tell, I read a lot so I don’t get much time to read Transfer Orbit, but I find Andrew’s book release lists an incredible resource for what to put on my Sci-Fi to-read list!
Tom Scott
Low on the list just because it doesn’t contain much original writing, Tom Scott is the guy in the red t-shirt that used to be all over YouTube (and is starting to make a return). Just a nice weekly list of fun links from around the internet.
https://www.tomscott.com/newsletter/
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Although follow his social media with warning. It contains incredibly useful/interesting short notice updates, combined with some of the worst humor on the internet. Not problematic in any way, just terrible (in my opinion). ↩