Zoë Bernard brings a sociologist’s eye to tech and culture reporting, currently contributing to Vanity Fair while maintaining investigative projects for Rolling Stone and Business Insider. Her work sits at the intersection of corporate strategy and human behavior, particularly interested in:
Recent accolades include a 2020 SABEW Award for pandemic reporting and multiple National Magazine Award nominations. Avoid pitching consumer tech product launches or pure business financials—her focus remains on the human systems underlying industry trends.
We’ve followed Zoë Bernard’s evolution from early tech reporting to nuanced cultural storytelling. Beginning at Business Insider in 2017, she dissected Silicon Valley’s startup ecosystem before joining The Information’s New York bureau to cover venture capital and corporate governance. Her 2021 transition to freelance work marked a pivot toward long-form cultural investigations, with recent contributions to Vanity Fair cementing her role as a chronicler of tech’s societal impacts.
This March 2025 Business Insider piece captures growing disillusionment among conservative tech executives. Bernard traces how tariff policies and cryptocurrency advocacy alienated former allies, blending financial analysis with anonymous CEO interviews. Her access to closed-door strategy sessions reveals boardroom tensions rarely seen in tech coverage.
A 2022 investigative deep dive exposes cultural mismatches in venture capital partnerships. Bernard documents how Brandless’s ethical sourcing commitments clashed with investor demands, using internal memos and exit interviews to reconstruct boardroom battles. The piece became required reading in MBA programs studying startup governance.
Bernard’s 2024 Rolling Stone exposé on underground college fight clubs combines true crime pacing with sociological analysis. Through 87 interviews with participants and law enforcement, she maps how pandemic isolation fueled dangerous campus subcultures. The story prompted four university policy reforms and showcased her ability to humanize systemic issues.
Bernard consistently explores how executives’ personal histories shape corporate decisions. Her Softbank investigation connected CEO Masayoshi Son’s early career trauma to investment patterns. Pitches should highlight psychological angles in leadership changes or management philosophy shifts.
The Fight Night story demonstrates her method of treating subcultures as interconnected systems. Successful pitches will identify emerging groups with clear ties to broader societal trends, particularly those intersecting with technology adoption.
Her Trump/Musk analysis shows how to make regulatory impacts tangible. Rather than abstract tariff discussions, she used specific examples like a robotics CEO laying off 300 workers. Frame policy angles through individual stories with verifiable human consequences.
“Bernard’s pandemic reporting redefined crisis journalism” - SABEW Judging Committee
Her 2020 SABEW Award recognized a series tracking Silicon Valley’s COVID-19 response, notable for predicting remote work’s infrastructure challenges six months before industry leaders acknowledged them. The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing specifically praised her integration of epidemiological data with workplace culture analysis.
At PressContact, we aim to help you discover the most relevant journalists for your PR efforts. If you're looking to pitch to more journalists who write on Tech, here are some other real estate journalist profiles you may find relevant:
