The shooting occurred in the newsroom while the staff hid under desks.
The Baltimore Sun, which owns the newspaper, reported that a male gunman was taken into custody and law enforcement officials continued to search the building. The Sun first learned of the shooting from a Gazette reporter.
Gazette reporter Phil Davis, who covers courts and crime for the newspaper, tweeted that "a single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead."
In another tweet, Davis said a "gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad."
And then Davis wrote: "There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you're under your desk and then hear the gunman reload."
Intern Anthony Messenger tweeted pleading for help: "Active shooter 888 Bestgate please help us."
Davis later told The Sun that "was like a war zone" inside the newspaper's offices -- a situation that would be "hard to describe for a while."
"I'm a police reporter. I write about this stuff -- not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death -- all the time," he said. "But as much as I'm going to try to articulate how traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don't know until you're there and you feel helpless."
Then, all of the sudden, Davis said, the shooting stopped and "I don't know why."
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says it is responding to reports of the shooting.
Marc Limansky, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Police Department, said officers were searching the building in Annapolis where the shooting was reported.
He says the situation is "active and ongoing." Limansky says he has no details about potential victims and he could not confirm the exact location of the building.
Arminta Plater, a spokeswoman for a hospital near the newspaper, said two patients had arrived there but she did not know their conditions.
On TV reports, people could be seen leaving the building with their hands up, as police urged them to depart through a parking lot and officers converged.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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