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Jacob Bernstein is fascinated by energy, privilege and the individuals who wield each.
As a reporter for the Types desk at The New York Instances, 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 standard beat the place there’s one particular person or topic I’m protecting on a regular basis,” stated Mr. Bernstein, 45. Typically, he’s reporting late at evening, from the areas and locations the place privilege and energy meet: events.
As a part of his job, Mr. Bernstein typically writes about soirees on the New York occasion scene, resembling Met Gala after-parties or the always-buzzy Vainness Honest Oscar occasion. Earlier than becoming a member of The Instances in 2013, Mr. Bernstein wrote for retailers together with The Every day Beast, New York Journal and Ladies’s Put on Every day, the place he wrote a column in regards to the journal enterprise.
In a telephone dialog from the Hamptons, the place he was reporting on the uproar surrounding a classy members-only membership, Mr. Bernstein shared why he has by no means grown bored of the society beat and his daring methodology for breaking the ice at, as he calls sure events, “playgrounds of privilege.” These are edited and condensed excerpts.
Did you at all times need to develop into a journalist?
Once I obtained out of school, I knew I used to be fascinated about narrative, and I knew I used to be fascinated about New York. Rising up within the metropolis, I had skilled two very totally different variations of it: One was going to a flowery non-public college and being the kid of well-known folks 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 unit, a nightclub on twenty seventh Road, as I did on the Dalton Faculty on Park Avenue. Throughout faculty, I deejayed on the Tunnel. The way in which that world disappeared on the finish of the ’90s — when all of these locations obtained shut down — was half of a bigger arc wherein artwork misplaced the battle to cash after which grew to become it.
Your mother and father are Carl Bernstein and Nora Ephron, who died in 2012. Did having well-known writers for fogeys make writing as an occupation kind of enticing to you?
My mother and father occupied distinguished spots on the earth I inhabit, and I don’t have any doubt it helped open doorways. You may’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 lovely, or poor as an alternative of wealthy.
On the similar time, when the documentary I directed about my mom got here out in 2015, the one evaluation that basically made me squirm stated one thing about how my mom had solid an extended 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, notably during the last 40 years, is a couple of playground of unbelievable wealth — and also you get to cowl that totally as an individual on the Types desk whose beat isn’t trend. So your complete lifetime of town is beneath my umbrella.
A whole lot of my writing is about Park Avenue fixtures like Steve Schwarzman or Agnes Gund, however I additionally need to do these items about people who find themselves extra on the periphery, resembling a ballroom legend like Hector Xtravaganza — it’s two totally different sides of New York.
Your latest article chronicling how the art-world mogul Louise Blouin discovered herself unloading her Hamptons dream dwelling in chapter court docket was fascinating. How did you provide you with 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 once 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 type of an avatar for the post-2000 artwork world bubble.
What’s the key to nice occasion reporting?
Simply taking a beta blocker and strolling as much as that particular person you’re scared to stroll as much as. Generally you could have an excellent query, and generally 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 once I walked as much as Lauren Sánchez on the Vainness Honest Oscar occasion, so I simply requested, “Do you could have folks stepping in your practice all evening 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 indicate the humor and tragedy of that.
I’m positive there are a lot of celebrities who would like to be profiled in The Instances. How do you resolve which narratives to pursue?
One factor I search for in potential tales is a topic who makes you suppose, “Perhaps I missed one thing with him.” If somebody’s been deified and isn’t wholly deserving, it makes for a very good story. The identical goes for if somebody’s been vilified. Perhaps there’s one thing extra redemptive to jot down about them.
