Fake Steve Jobs is Forbes senior editor

Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine, has come forth as the writer of the Fake Steve Jobs blog that has captured the imagination of techies around the world — and attracted Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates as readers.

Brad Stone of The New York Times writes, “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.

“Though many speculators have guessed Fake Steve was an Apple insider, Mr. Lyons says he has never interviewed Mr. Jobs nor written a story about the company. ‘I have zero sources inside Apple,’ he said. ‘I had to go out and get books and biographies to learn about a lot of the back story.'”

Read more here.