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Jacob Bernstein is fascinated by energy, privilege and the individuals who wield each.
As a reporter for the Kinds desk at The New York Occasions, Mr. Bernstein’s beat entails writing about influential figures — each previous and current — of New York Metropolis.
Within the final 12 months, his protection has included an exploration of the previous U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s “second profession on the society circuit”; a profile of a Republican pundit turned liberal favourite, Alyssa Farah Griffin; and an article on the rise and fall of the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs.
“I don’t have a traditional beat the place there’s one particular person or topic I’m masking on a regular basis,” mentioned Mr. Bernstein, 45. Usually, he’s reporting late at night time, from the areas and locations the place privilege and energy meet: events.
As a part of his job, Mr. Bernstein usually writes about soirees on the New York get together scene, similar to Met Gala after-parties or the always-buzzy Self-importance Honest Oscar get together. Earlier than becoming a member of The Occasions in 2013, Mr. Bernstein wrote for retailers together with The Every day Beast, New York Journal and Girls’s Put on Every day, the place he wrote a column concerning the journal enterprise.
In a cellphone dialog from the Hamptons, the place he was reporting on the uproar surrounding a stylish members-only membership, Mr. Bernstein shared why he has by no means grown bored of the society beat and his daring technique for breaking the ice at, as he calls sure events, “playgrounds of privilege.” These are edited and condensed excerpts.
Did you all the time wish to develop into a journalist?
After I obtained out of faculty, I knew I used to be inquisitive about narrative, and I knew I used to be inquisitive about New York. Rising up within the metropolis, I had skilled two very totally different variations of it: One was going to a elaborate personal college and being the kid of well-known individuals in journalism and movie, and the opposite was being an overtly homosexual child on the finish of the AIDS period.
I obtained my training as a lot on the Sound Manufacturing facility, a nightclub on twenty seventh Road, as I did on the Dalton Faculty on Park Avenue. Throughout faculty, I deejayed on the Tunnel. The best way that world disappeared on the finish of the ’90s — when all of these locations obtained shut down — was half of a bigger arc through which artwork misplaced the battle to cash after which turned it.
Your mother and father are Carl Bernstein and Nora Ephron, who died in 2012. Did having well-known writers for folks make writing as an occupation kind of enticing to you?
My mother and father occupied outstanding spots on this planet I inhabit, and I don’t have any doubt it helped open doorways. You possibly can’t say it’s simpler to not have connections any greater than you’ll be able to say it’s simpler to be ugly than stunning, or poor as a substitute of wealthy.
On the similar time, when the documentary I directed about my mom got here out in 2015, the one assessment that basically made me squirm mentioned one thing about how my mom had forged a protracted shadow. That wouldn’t have been the case had it not, in sure methods, been true.
What fascinates you about society in New York?
The story of this metropolis, significantly over the past 40 years, is a few playground of unimaginable wealth — and also you get to cowl that totally as an individual on the Kinds desk whose beat isn’t vogue. So the whole lifetime of town is underneath my umbrella.
A number of my writing is about Park Avenue fixtures like Steve Schwarzman or Agnes Gund, however I additionally wish to do these items about people who find themselves extra on the periphery, similar to a ballroom legend like Hector Xtravaganza — it’s two totally different sides of New York.
Your current article chronicling how the art-world mogul Louise Blouin discovered herself unloading her Hamptons dream dwelling in chapter courtroom was fascinating. How did you give you the concept?
I used to be speaking with my editors about doing a column on stuff offered by means of public sale homes, and that’s after I started reporting. I’d identified who she was again when she was constructing her artwork empire, after which I noticed the home was being auctioned off by means of Sotheby’s. It rapidly metastasized into a bigger profile of an individual who’d been form of an avatar for the post-2000 artwork world bubble.
What’s the key to nice get together reporting?
Simply taking a beta blocker and strolling as much as that particular person you’re scared to stroll as much as. Typically you might have query, and typically you don’t. It actually nearly doesn’t matter so long as you simply break the ice.
I didn’t have a remotely good query after I walked as much as Lauren Sánchez on the Self-importance Honest Oscar get together, so I simply requested, “Do you might have individuals stepping in your practice all night time lengthy?” Her response was, “Positive, nevertheless it simply bounces proper again up.” It conveyed one thing enormously telling. The sorts of events we cowl are playgrounds of privilege, so my job is to point out the humor and tragedy of that.
I’m positive there are a lot of celebrities who would like to be profiled in The Occasions. How do you resolve which narratives to pursue?
One factor I search for in potential tales is a topic who makes you assume, “Possibly I missed one thing with him.” If somebody’s been deified and isn’t wholly deserving, it makes for a extremely good story. The identical goes for if somebody’s been vilified. Possibly there’s one thing extra redemptive to write down about them.
