The Engineer

About The Engineer

The Engineer is a London-based monthly magazine and website covering the latest developments and business news in engineering and technology in the UK and internationally. Founded in January 1856 by the entrepreneur and engineering enthusiast Edward Charles Healey, it is one of the oldest continuously published business titles on the planet — approaching its 170th anniversary in 2026. It is published by the Mark Allen Group, which acquired it from Centaur Media in June 2019, and its website is theengineer.co.uk.

Created as a technical magazine for engineers, the journal reported on inventions and patents during the high point of British manufacturing power, and its nineteenth-century volumes — together with those of its contemporary Engineering — are considered a valuable historical resource for the study of British economic history. After announcing its final print edition in July 2012, reader demand brought it back to print as a monthly in September 2013. It runs an annual industry conference and an annual awards ceremony encouraging collaboration in innovation.

Founding by Edward Charles Healey, 1856

The Engineer was founded in January 1856 by Edward Charles Healey, an entrepreneur and engineering enthusiast with financial interests in the railways whose friends included Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Healey put the first issue together from offices on the Strand, in the midst of the Industrial Revolution — less than twenty years after Michael Faraday, working in the basement of the Royal Institution a few hundred yards away, had laid the foundations of the electrical age.

The journal was created as a technical magazine for engineers, and it began covering engineering — including inventions and patents — at a high point of British economic and manufacturing power. In the nineteenth century it also published stock prices of raw materials, serving the commercial as well as the technical needs of its readers. Its founding gave the engineering profession its own journal at the very moment modern engineering was being born.

Victorian Engineering and the Archive

The magazine's Victorian volumes are a treasure of industrial history. Its pages recorded the great engineering achievements of the age — Bazalgette's London sewers, the railway mania, the development of steam, iron and steel — alongside the esoteric inventions that caught its eye, from horse tanks to ultra-violet disinfection machines. To mark its 160th birthday in 2016, the magazine published a special anniversary edition and a "From the Archive" supplement of milestones and curiosities.

That archive gives the modern magazine a unique authority: it has reported on engineering continuously from the age of steam to the age of artificial intelligence. When The Engineer writes about technological change, it does so as a publication that has witnessed every industrial revolution since the first.

The Pendred Editors

The journal's early editorial history was dominated by the Pendred family: Vaughan Pendred edited it from 1865 to 1905, Loughnan St Lawrence Pendred from 1905 to 1946, and Benjamin Pendred from 1946. These extraordinarily long tenures — eighty years under just three editors — gave the title a consistency of judgment and a depth of technical knowledge that made it indispensable to the profession.

Under the Pendreds the journal navigated the second industrial revolution, two world wars and the birth of the modern engineering industries — from electrification and the internal combustion engine to aviation and nuclear power. Their editorships remain among the longest in British journalistic history.

The 2012 Print Closure — and Return

On 10 July 2012 the magazine announced its final print edition. Editor Jon Excell cited "increasing distribution and production costs, and the impact of an ongoing economic crisis on advertising revenues," which had "conspired to create a challenging environment for magazine publishers." Owner Centaur Media proposed to focus editorial and commercial resources on the website — relaunched in 2009 — and other digital products.

But demand for the print edition proved such that after a 12-month hiatus, The Engineer returned as a monthly print magazine in September 2013. The comeback was a rare reversal in an era of print closures, and a testament to the loyalty of its engineering readership. As of 2019 the magazine published 10 issues a year, with a presence on social media and the news aggregator Flipboard.

Acquisition by the Mark Allen Group

In June 2019 The Engineer was acquired from Centaur Media by the Mark Allen Group, the specialist publisher whose portfolio includes Nursery World, Community Care and Children & Young People Now. Under Mark Allen ownership, with Jon Excell continuing as editor, the title has continued its monthly print and digital publishing.

The acquisition placed one of the world's oldest business titles within a publishing group focused on professional markets — a natural home for a magazine that has always served a professional readership. The November 2025 issue noted the magazine's aim "to champion and promote engineering innovation and technology development across all of the UK's key engineering sectors."

Editorial Scope: Engineering and Technology Business

The Engineer covers the latest developments and business news in engineering and technology: from aerospace, automotive, energy, rail and manufacturing to the emerging technologies reshaping industry — artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced materials and the energy transition. Its journalism combines technical depth with business analysis, serving engineers who need to understand both the technology and its commercial implications.

The website, theengineer.co.uk, carries daily news alongside the magazine's features, while the brand's digital products extend its reach to the global engineering community. The magazine's strapline might be summarised in its own mission: championing engineering innovation and technology development.

Conference and Awards

The magazine runs an annual conference for the industry and an annual awards ceremony for the encouragement of collaboration in innovation. These events bring together engineers, business leaders, academics and policymakers to debate the future of the profession and to recognise the partnerships that turn ideas into industrial reality.

The awards' emphasis on collaboration reflects a core belief of the title: that engineering progress depends on bringing disciplines, sectors and organisations together. In a tradition stretching back to Healey's circle of Stephenson and Brunel, The Engineer convenes the profession it reports on.

170 Years of Continuous Publication

In 2026 The Engineer marks its 170th anniversary — "astonishingly," as its own pages put it, making it one of the oldest continuously published business titles on the planet. From the Strand offices of 1856 to the digital newsroom of today, it has reported on every phase of modern engineering: steam, electricity, flight, nuclear power, computing, the internet and AI.

Through changes of owner, the death and rebirth of its print edition, and the transformation of the industries it covers, the magazine's purpose has never changed. Founded by an engineering enthusiast to serve engineers, The Engineer remains the journal of the profession that built the modern world — and is still building it.

The £2.5 Million Move to the Mark Allen Group

The Engineer was founded in January 1856 by Edward Charles Healey, an entrepreneur and engineering enthusiast with railway interests whose circle included Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Created as a technical magazine for engineers, it documented inventions and patents through the high point of British manufacturing power — and with the contemporary journal Engineering remains a valuable historical resource for the study of British economic history. Early editors included Vaughan Pendred (1865–1905), Loughnan St Lawrence Pendred (1905–46) and Benjamin Pendred (from 1946).

The modern era brought turbulence and renewal. On 10 July 2012 the magazine announced its final print edition, editor Jon Excell citing rising distribution and production costs and the impact of the economic crisis on advertising revenues; owner Centaur Media proposed to focus on the website, relaunched in 2009. Demand for print proved so strong that after a 12-month hiatus The Engineer returned as a monthly print magazine in September 2013. In June 2019 it was acquired from Centaur Media by the Mark Allen Group for a cash consideration of £2.5 million — a deal including the Subcon subcontract-manufacturing show, completed on 31 May — strengthening MAG's manufacturing and engineering portfolio alongside New Electronics, Eureka and the Engineering Design Show. The 2025 media pack records 169 years of technology and innovation: 13,250 print and digital issues six times a year, 140,000 website page impressions a month, a daily newsletter with 64,103 subscribers and 72,000 social media followers. The brand also runs the annual Collaborate to Innovate awards, encouraging collaboration in innovation, and marked its 160th birthday in 2016 with a special anniversary edition. Its website is theengineer.co.uk.