- Mainstreet Daily News hired Walker Smith as their first staff photographer starting in July, with support from Report for America.
- Report for America funds 50% of a journalist's salary in the first year and helps place reporters in local newsrooms nationwide.
Photos play a vital role in journalism. Imagine the stories you see online, like this one, without any photos. Not only would they look boring, but research has shown that good photography builds engagement and trust—elements that are both critically important to the future of local news.
“Trust is harder to earn when attention is scarce, and attention for information consumers in the United States and around the world has never been more divided,” Dr. Evan Kropp, executive director of distance education at UF’s College of Journalism and Communications, recently wrote.
Sadly, in recent years, many local news outlets around the country have been laying off photojournalists due to budget cuts. The result is cobbling together photos from freelancers, staff writers and other sources.
Here at Mainstreet Daily News, we have had to take a similar approach since launching in 2020, using our limited resources to expand reporting capacity. Admittedly, that has sometimes left us with limited options and inconsistent photo quality, even for deeply reported stories.
Now, thanks to Report for America, those days will soon be behind us. Mainstreet is thrilled to announce the hiring of Walker Smith as our first staff photographer, starting in July.
Walker comes to Mainstreet with a wealth of experience in locations ranging from New York City to Appalachia to Alaska. His commercial clients include Revlon, Ralph Lauren and Tiffany & Co., and he has covered diverse topics that include commercial fishing, sports and criminal justice.
Walker earned a master’s degree in photojournalism from Ohio University and gained valuable experience at both a public radio station and the Charleston Post and Courier, a Pulitzer-winning newspaper in South Carolina.
He’s now bringing all of that background to Gainesville—which at one time had a lot of full-time photojournalists but now has mostly a smattering of freelancers.
“I see photo and video journalism as a powerful tool to tell complex stories,” Walker wrote in his application. “I am particularly passionate about rural coverage, environmental storytelling, and criminal justice.”
Walker will work closely with our reporters to add compelling visual elements to their stories, while also producing independent projects. He will also shoot UF sports, complementing the work of columnist Pat Dooley and Mike Dame, who writes our weekly Gator Bites newsletter.
The organization making this new position possible, Report for America, is a national service program that places emerging journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. It’s the same program that brought our education reporter, Nick Anschultz, to Mainstreet last year.
Since 2017, Report for America has placed more than 700 journalists in local newsrooms around the country. The program provides each corps member with excellent training and mentorship, while providing newsrooms funding to cover 50% of the journalist’s salary in the first year, 33% in the second year, and 20% in the third year.
The remainder of the salary will come from local donations. Report for America wants this position to be sustainable and supported by the community benefiting from the coverage.
We have partnered with the Community Foundation of North Central Florida to facilitate these tax-deductible gifts. Please visit our secure portal to support this position and help us build a stronger Alachua County.
And you can check out his past work at his dedicated website.