Experienced investigative reporter Rich Webster is joining Verite, a nonprofit digital newsroom with a mission to bring more coverage and scrutiny to local and government issues that impact the daily lives of all residents in the New Orleans area.

Webster joins a growing team of reporters, editors, multimedia journalists and contributors in a newsgathering organization that launched in July 2022. Verite seeks to create thoughtful, solution-based coverage on crucial topics – such as education, housing, health care, criminal justice, the environment and politics – while uplifting a region that has been left behind compared to similar national metropolitan areas.
Before coming to Verite, Webster spent the past two and a half years as a member of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. He investigated allegations of abuse against the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, and claims of racial and economic inequities within Louisiana’s Road Home recovery program following Hurricane Katrina.
Webster previously was a member of The Times-Picayune’s investigative team, reporting on numerous special projects including “The Children of Central City,” an in-depth look at childhood trauma through the lens of a youth football team; “A Fragile State,” a multi-part series on Louisiana’s mental health care system; and “Dying at OPP,” which examined the deaths of inmates in Orleans Parish Prison.
Webster also covered the criminal justice system and the Covid-19 pandemic for The Washington Post, ProPublica and The Guardian.