Photographer's Mission: Capturing Vanishing Newsrooms

0:00It's May 1st, Durham News Today starts now, AI-powered and ready. I'm Cory with the story. Brooklyn photographer Anne Hermes is on a mission, snapping photos inside 50 local newsrooms across America, mostly in small towns. Her shots capture the gritty side of journalism as the industry shrinks fast. One paper she documented in California already closed its doors. She worked in newsrooms herself for years, but this turned into a real passion project she never saw coming. The images reveal cluttered desks, pile with notebooks, old reports, and stacks of yellowing newspapers, plus shabby carpets, and walls that scream, long hours under deadline pressure. These photos smash the idea that local reporting is some glamorous gig. It's hardworking folks in makeshift offices, dodging ridicule from leaders, and watching colleagues jump ship for better pay. The human toll shows and empty stories to be written, signs, and half forgotten efficiency tools. Hermes highlights vanishing newspaper mords, stuffed with cut out clips, holding a community's

1:03full history that's slipping away as everything goes. Digital. Stacks of papers fill cubbies, vans, and corners, reminders of a fading print era. She calls it a love letter to these true believers, grinding for civic duty, and she's pushing toward a hundred newsrooms total, picking a fresh, lessons at every stop, with spots vanishing before our eyes. Her lens keeps their spirit alive.