Nilay Patel


Nilay Patel is an American editor and journalist best known for his work at technology news websites Engadget and The Verge. Patel had his first blogging gig at Gapers Block, a Chicago-centric blog. He was offered a full-time job at Engadget in 2008. After serving at Engadget, he left in 2011 and went on to work for The Verge. In 2014 he left The Verge to join sister site Vox, but later returned to The Verge to become its new editor-in-chief, replacing Joshua Topolsky.

Education

In 2003, Patel obtained a degree in Political Science from the University of Chicago and in 2006 received his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Career

Patel spent four years at Engadget where he was responsible for blogging. SAY Media named Patel one of the 10 "Voices that matter" in technology journalism. Throughout his career, he has appeared on NHK, G4TV, and TWiT, among many others. Patel is also a co-host for The Vergecast. Andrew Beaujon of the Poynter Institute cited Patel's work at The Verge as an example of how lawyer-journalists are useful for news websites.
In 2011 Patel left Engadget along with a few co-workers to create The Verge. In March 2014 he left The Verge to join sister site Vox, then he returned in July 2014 and became Editor-in-Chief of The Verge, after Joshua Topolsky left the position to work at Bloomberg.

Controversy

In February 2019, The Verge claimed copyright infringements against two YouTube videos that were reactions to the Verge's 13 September 2018 "How to build a $2000 PC" video. Patel's public statements and Twitter responses supporting his legal team's assessment that the videos were not fair use, but cancelling copyright claims regardless due to YouTube's system being 'broken' become a focus of criticism for failing to admit any error on Verge's part in the initial claim, particularly given their ongoing critical coverage of corporations bullying critics via YouTube copyright claims and the commentary made in the videos.