The Next Digit explains technology. Not the industry, not the share prices, not the launch events: the tools themselves. What a piece of software or hardware is, how it works, how to use it properly, how to choose between the options, and how to tell whether it is doing what it claims.
We write for people who use technology to get something done. That is a large group, so we split it by reader rather than by product. There are six sections, and each one has its own editor.
Six sections, six kinds of reader
- Founders Tech, for people taking an idea from first evidence to first customers, edited by Zach Bowman.
- Creators Tech, for people who publish on YouTube, in podcasts, in books and in newsletters, edited by Gwen Marlow.
- Business Tech, for teams choosing and living with company software, edited by Laura Kessler.
- Workers Tech, for anyone whose day runs through a laptop and a calendar, edited by me.
- Devs Tech, for developers and the curious people who work next to them, edited by Owen Ríos.
- Consumer Tech, for the technology at home, also edited by me.
The people behind each section are listed on the Masthead, with a page for each of them.
What we do differently
Most technology writing tells you what to buy. We would rather tell you how to check. Almost every guide here ends with a way to verify the advice yourself: a measurement to take, a setting to look at, a test to run before you pay for anything. If an article cannot tell you how you would know it worked, it is not finished.
We are also strict about time. Software changes every month, so facts that move, such as prices, plan limits and specifications, are checked against the vendor’s own pages and dated. When something changes, we update the article rather than leaving the old answer in place. The details are in our Editorial Standards.
What we do not do
We do not cover rumors, leaks or launch-day excitement. We do not rank products by how much a vendor is willing to pay. We do not write about games. And we do not publish every day, because a good explanation takes longer than a news item and lasts considerably longer too.
Who publishes it
The Next Digit is published by The Next Digit Group. It is a sister publication of Savant, which covers technology from the other side: as business, strategy and change. Savant asks what a technology means for companies and the people in them. We ask how the thing actually works and how to use it well. The two publications share an outlook and keep separate editorial teams.
Write for us
We publish contributions from practitioners who know a tool well and can explain it plainly. If that is you, read Contribute before you pitch.
Seb Ashby, Editor-in-Chief
