Our friend Brad Stone of The New York Times has just broke the story that he has solved the mystery regarding the real identity of Fake Steve Jobs, the anonymous writer behind the enormously popular blog The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. It turns out that it is Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes Magazine. Here’s the full story: “A Mystery Solved: ‘Fake Steve’ Blogger Comes Clean”
Mr. Lyons said he invented the Fake Steve character last year, when a small group of chief executives turned bloggers attracted some media attention. He noticed that they rarely spoke candidly. “I thought, wouldn’t it be funny if a C.E.O. kept a blog that really told you what he thought? That was the gist of it.”
Mr. Lyons says he recalled trying out the voices of several chief executives before settling on the colorful Apple co-founder. He twice tried to relinquish the blog, but started again after being deluged by fans e-mailing to ask why Fake Steve had disappeared.
Daniel has been working on a book “Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody”, which will be published by Da Capo Press in October. The book in part helped Brad in identifying Daniel Lyons as Fake Steve Jobs.
Earlier today Brad Stone attempted to publicly out Daniel Lyons in his article “The Trial of Fake Steve Jobs”, which then promptly lead to Daniel admitting that he was in fact the real Fake Steve Jobs. For months dozens of journalists, bloggers and media outlets have been working non-stop trying to determine FSJ’s real identity. Well today, the mystery has been solved. Bravo Brad, great detective work!
Oh and it’s interesting to note that Daniel Lyons was the guy who wrote the controversial “Attack of the Blogs” cover story for Forbes in November 2005, where he trashed bloggers, calling them “lynch mobs” and provided information on how to fight back against them. Funny that he should now be unmasked as the guy who writes one of the world’s most popular blogs.
UPDATE: Fake Steve Jobs Responds
Fake Steve Jobs, now know as Daniel Lyons, has just updated The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, admitting that he has been busted by Brad Stone, making a point that at least it was the New York Times, not Valleywag that outed him.
Well it had to happen. Honestly I can’t believe it’s taken this long. But as you may have heard, I’ve been busted by a newspaper reporter. My cover has been blown. Guy named Brad Stone, who works for the New York Times. Have you heard of him? Well, tip of the hat to you, Brad Stone. You did the sleuthing. You put the pieces of the puzzle together. You went through my trash, hacked into my computer, and put listening devices in my home. Now you’ve ruined the mystery of Fake Steve, robbing thousands of people around the world of their sense of childlike wonder. Hope you feel good about yourself, you mangina. One bright side is that at least I was busted by the Times and not Valleywag. I really, really enjoyed seeing those guys keep guessing wrong. For six months Dr. Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth put their big brains together and couldn’t come up with the answer. Guy from the Times did it in a week. So much for the trope about smarty-pants bloggers disrupting old media. Brilliant. My only regret is that we didn’t get a chance to see Bigglesworth take a few more swings and misses.
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While the real Steve Jobs must be relieved, the competition is pissed. The usually reticent Bill Gates already had some not-so-namaste things to say about the whole Daniel Lyons affair.