Join the best erotica focused adult social network now
Login

Fake Steve Jobs offered a book deal

last reply
1 reply
1.4k views
0 watchers
0 likes
Matriarch
0 likes
Fake Bill Gates writes one as well - nowhere near as good, but sells 50 times as many...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05182007/business/hatchet_jobs_business_keith_j__kelly.htm

HATCHET JOBS
FAKE APPLE CEO'S BLOG GETS BOOK DEAL Steve Jobs
May 18, 2007 -- WILL the person who claims to be behind a parody of Apple Chairman Steve Jobs remain hidden long enough for his or her book to appear?

For months, cyber sleuths have been trying to unmask the mysterious writer who has been spoofing the Apple co-founder on The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs Web site.

The frenzy heated up earlier this week after BusinessWeek's Apple reporter John Burrows wrote that the fake Steve Jobs had landed a book deal. Cambridge, Mass.-based Da Capo Press, an imprint of Perseus Books, inked the mysterious writer to publish "Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs - A Parody by Fake Steve Jobs."

Sources tell Media Ink the advance is estimated to be only $75,000, a decidedly un-Jobs-like number, but that hasn't stopped the buzz - or led to the revelation of the person behind the fake Steve Jobs.

Lissa Warren, a spokeswoman for Da Capo, confirmed the deal but declined to disclose the size of the advance, and of course wouldn't ID the writer.

Emma Parry was the agent who helped land the deal. She knows fake Steve's identity, but she's not saying anything, either.

In recent days, the Web site Valleywag.com had zeroed in on Leander Kahney, the Wired News managing editor, as the person most likely behind fake Steve but Kahney says they have the wrong man.

"Wow, you accumulated so much evidence, I'm half convinced myself," he wrote to Valleywag. "Unfortunately, I'm not fake Steve, and I've no idea who he is."

In a strange twist, the Condé Nast-owned Wired.com had been a paid sponsor of the Secret Diary Web site from February until just this past Monday.

"He [fake Steve] called and said he wanted to end it for his own reasons," said Wired News Editor-in-Chief Evan Hansen.

Hansen said he knew the identity of the writer, but much like an anonymous source, he has pledged not to break the silence.

That has not stopped the guessing game, however.

"All the names I've seen mentioned so far have been wrong," said Hansen. And the guess that it was his own managing editor was wrong as well, he said. "The person is not a Wired staffer," he insisted.

So the writer is apparently a male. "Did I say 'he?'" asked Hansen, worried that he had pulled back the curtain even a sliver.

Da Capo hopes the guessing game never unmasks fake Steve's real identity and plans to use it in the marketing campaign.

"It'll be one of our lead fall titles," Warren said.


Fox hole news


Fox News Channel White House correspondent Greg Kelly, son of Police Commissioner - and Kelly Gang member - Ray Kelly, has been promoted to lieutenant co lonel in the Marine Reserves from the rank of major.

The younger of Ray's two sons, Greg has done five tours in the Middle East for Fox News, and before joining the cable network in 2002 spent nine years in the Marine Corps as a fighter pilot. His father, meanwhile, retired from the Marine Reserves as a colonel.


RIP EEs


Another one-time pretender to the throne of a Time Inc. magazine is heading for the exit. It may not be a purge, but those executive-editor types with their comfy mid-six figure salaries seem to be an endangered species at America's biggest magazine publisher.

Today, People magazine Executive Editor Cutler Durkee is slated to walk away from his desk after a 29-year run. It comes shortly after Sports Illustrated Executive Editor Rob Fleder retired from his job after two decades.

Durkee at one point in his long career was seen as a rising star, potentially destined for the top editor's job at the weekly. He lost out when Carol Wallace snagged the job in the late '90s instead and stayed close to the top through two more regime changes when Martha Nelson came to power and when current Managing Editor Larry Hackett arrived.

Durkee seemed to settle into a role as a top lieutenant with elan. He became the man who made sure the trains ran on time while the top editor was off attending the Cannes Film Festival or the Academy Awards.

"I went to college at Berkeley and I was stunned when I got a job on the magazine," he recalled of his first job in 1979, only five years after Dick Stolley helped launch the magazine that eventually became the most profitable title in the Time Inc. stable.

And not snagging the top job never bothered him.

"My constitution didn't match up exactly with what the top guy's is," he said. "Others seemed to have a much greater appetite for being the outside man than I did. I became more of the word guy."

He was toasted by the People staff at a "pour" - the inside term for drinks on the house - yesterday.


OK job


Jann Wenner's loss is OK!'s gain.

Charlie McNiff, the associate publisher at Us Weekly through its meteoric rise over the past six years, exited recently when he could not come to terms with the famously tight-fisted Wenner on a new contract.

Sources said Wenner, who had doled out spectacular commissions when the magazine was a risky venture in the publishing world, has been trying to chop the bonuses in the latest round of negotiations.

Now McNiff will be working against Us Weekly in his new gig as associate publisher at OK!

"I think there's still room for growth in the category," said McNiff.


Back peddled


Just as we wrote back on May 10, Rodale is breaking camp with Backpacker. The company confirmed yesterday that it has sold Backpacker to Active Interest Media, which is led by Efrem "Skip" Zimbalist III.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but sources tell Media Ink the price tag was $14 million.

The magazine carved out a niche because editors personally test all the hiking trails, camping gear, and survival tips they publish.

Backpacker became the first Rodale magazine to snag a National Magazine Award for general excel lence in 2006.

Editor-in-chief John Dorn brought a note of levity with his acceptance speech when he ribbed his Men's Health colleague Dave Zinczenko for having, "not only the best abs" but also "the best ass at Rodale."

But now Dorn is expected to move with the magazine to Boulder, Colo.

The publisher's post has been filled by Group Publisher Chris Lambiase, who is staying at Rodale. Its last publisher was Eric Zinczenko, (brother of Dave Z.), who joined Field & Stream/Outdoor Life a year ago.
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
That's funny. Amazing what you can get away with on the interweb these days.