WSJ real estate reporter Wotapka joins PR firm

Dawn Wotapka, a real estate reporter for The Wall Street Journal who left the paper last month, has joined a New York-based public relations firm.

She will be an associate vice president at Rubenstein Associates, a 60-year-old Manhattan-based agency.  Wotapka will work in the firm’s expanding real estate practice headed by Steve Solomon.

“With her great knowledge and understanding of the real estate industry and how it works, Dawn is a terrific addition to our multi-faceted practice,” stated Solomon, in a statement.  “We, as well as many of our clients, are excited to welcome her aboard.”

For the past seven years, Wotapka covered a variety of real estate beats, including home builders, residential developers and owners, and student housing operators, and monitored corporate earnings and SEC filings for both the Journal and the Dow Jones Newswires.  Most recently, she wrote cover stories and helped with multimedia features for “Mansion,” the Journal’s weekly luxury real estate section.

Prior to joining the Journal, Wotapka was a real estate reporter for Long Island Business News, and before that, covered government and transportation for the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.

During her career, she won a 2007 “Ace” award for her coverage of WCI Communities; an award from the NY State Society of CPA’s for her 2009 series “Lurking in the Balance Sheet” and an honorable mention for “Best Body of Work” from NAREE in 2011.  She is credited with two front-page “A-Heds”, considered the Journal’s highest quality prose.