Categories: OLD Media Moves

Who is Jack Flack?

Remember the disclosure last month by the New York Times that Forbes senior editor Daniel Lyons was the writer behind the Fake Steve Jobs blog? It had been hotly debated for nearly a year in the blogging world as to the true identity of the writer.

Well, I’d like to throw down a new challenge: Who is the writer behind the Jack Flack blog “Business Spin” on the Conde Nast Portfolio web site? If you haven’t been reading it, it’s increasingly become one of my favorite reads because it discusses the business world’s relationship with the media and does a great job of offering a biting critique of the business media.

The thing is, “Jack” is hiding his face behind a newspaper on the blog, much like “Home Improvement” neighbor Wilson W. Wilson Jr., who appeared over the top of the fence separating his yard with Tim Allen’s.

So, we don’t know what his face looks like. And “Jack Flack” is obviously not his name.

So, here’s my offer: The first person to post a comment to this item that correctly identifies Jack Flack — and I am aware of “Jack’s” true identity — will receive a one-year subscription to Conde Nast Portfolio.

And here’s is a clue from “Jack”: “I took the name on more as a blatant statement of alter-ego than for clandestine purposes, but the secrecy has been fun thus far. And I’ve had to face the facts, Jack is simply much more interesting than I am.”

Conde Nast/Newhouse employees are not eligible. Void where prohibited by law.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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