WSJ hires real-time reporter, night editor

Cara Lombardo has been hired by the Wall Street Journal to work as a reporter on the real-time news desk.

She most recently worked as a legislative relief reporter for the AP in Wisconsin’s statehouse and as a reporter for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Before that, she interned on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s investigative team, where she broke the story of an inmate dying of dehydration in Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke’s jail.

Before becoming a journalist, she worked as a CPA and auditor at PwC in New York and Boston. Lombardo has graduate degrees in journalism and business from the University of Wisconsin and a bachelor’s degree from its business school.

In addition, Michael P. Ventura has joined the WSJ as night editor on the digital desk.

He was managing editor of DNAinfo New York, the award-winning neighborhood news website, before coming to the Journal. He was also an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and has worked at the Daily News, WNYC, Metro New York and the Boston Herald.

His writing has appeared in the Village Voice, The Real Deal and Time Out New York, among other publications.