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Jacob Bernstein is fascinated by power, privilege and the people who wield both.
As a reporter for the Styles desk at The New York Times, Mr. Bernstein’s beat involves writing about influential figures — both past and present — of New York City.
In the last year, his coverage has included an exploration of the former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s “second career on the society circuit”; a profile of a Republican pundit turned liberal favorite, Alyssa Farah Griffin; and an article on the rise and fall of the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs.
“I don’t have a conventional beat where there’s one person or subject I’m covering all the time,” said Mr. Bernstein, 45. Often, he’s reporting late at night, from the spaces and places where privilege and power meet: parties.
As part of his job, Mr. Bernstein often writes about soirees on the New York party scene, such as Met Gala after-parties or the always-buzzy Vanity Fair Oscar party. Before joining The Times in 2013, Mr. Bernstein wrote for outlets including The Daily Beast, New York Magazine and Women’s Wear Daily, where he wrote a column about the magazine business.
In a phone conversation from the Hamptons, where he was reporting on the uproar surrounding a trendy members-only club, Mr. Bernstein shared why he has never grown bored of the society beat and his bold method for breaking the ice at, as he calls certain parties, “playgrounds of privilege.” These are edited and condensed excerpts.
Did you always want to become a journalist?
When I got out of college, I knew I was interested in narrative, and I knew I was interested in New York. Growing up in the city, I had experienced two very different versions of it: One was going to a fancy private school and being the child of famous people in journalism and film, and the other was being an openly gay kid at the end of the AIDS era.
