Meet the fake Steve Jobs...

... and several other satirists blogging in the guise of famous CEOs as interest in captains of industry grows.

from the January 11, 2008 edition

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The funny thing is that some CEOs don't actually write their own blogs at all. Ghostwritten blogs are a growing trend in the corporate world.

"Everybody thinks they need one now," says Allison Nazarian, founder of Get It in Writing, a ghostwriting service, "but nobody has the time." There are rules, she adds. Ms. Nazarian only writes "informational, corporate type blogs," she says, and will not masquerade as someone else. Just recently, she turned down an offer from a high-profile female executive, known for her parenting and homemaking tips, who wanted a first-person blog – but didn't have the time. "That violates the rule that readers have with bloggers," says Nazarian, "which is that you know who's behind the words."

The blogosphere is full of ethical and legal minefields, say legal experts. Lyons says he took great pains to make clear that his blog was fake, which nonetheless did not prevent many fans from speculating that Jobs was its author.

New revelations about blogging bungles have begun to appear regularly, from The New Republic, which recently retracted a series of blogs about military life in Iraq because of its questionable sources, to Wal-Mart's digital faux pas earlier this year. In that situation, the company took a big PR hit after revelations that it secretly sponsored a "spontaneous" road-trip blog in which a couple visited and wrote enthusiastically about Wal-Marts nationwide.

"Intention is the key," says New York lawyer Michael Lasky. "Is there a deliberate desire to deceive for the purpose of manipulating stock price or consumer behavior?" asks Mr. Lasky. "Truth and transparency matter just as much in the new-media world as they do in direct-mail or any other form of old business practices."

While some early imitators of the "fake Steve" blog have shut down, the trend is just getting started, says Postman, who calls the genre a great tool to talk back to big companies.

"Once people figure out the formula," he says, "what a great opportunity for, say, activists to fake blog about oil companies despoiling the environment," he says, adding "you can say almost anything you want without risk."

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