Fox affiliate WXMI in Grand Rapids, Michigan plans to rework its newscasts by “taking [news] out of the studio, and into your neighborhoods where the stories that matter to you are happening.”

The station said its planning to assign reporters to specific neighborhoods. The attached pic shows some of the assignments.

“This transition has been in the works for a while now — our team of reporters have ingrained themselves in your neighborhoods over the last few months,” the station said.

“I was born here. I grew up here, and I feel like every single day that I’m working, I’m continuing to define what home means to me,” said Kent County reporter Sam Landstra.

“What they care about is so vital into finding story ideas every day and to really reporting the news that they want to watch,” said East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills, & Cascade reporter Cassandra Alonso.

You can click here to see which reporters are in which neighborhoods.

Scripps told TVSpy that the neighborhood news model is something that about a dozen Scripps stations have rolled out over the last two years:

The station group said the neighborhood news format was informed by research and gets away from the “live for the sake of being live” nature of news and, instead, focuses on quality, community-based journalism.

This means viewers will see more journalists out newsgathering on the street, instead of sitting behind the anchor desk. Neighborhood news stories are also more frequently introduced by a reporter out in the field instead of by an anchor. 

“We’ve had conversations at community events, we’ve conducted formal focus groups and feedback sessions – we’ve even visited our viewers in their homes,” said Scripps. “One thing is clear from all the feedback: our audiences want to see us in their communities and not just parachuting in when bad things happen. The neighborhood news model’s aim is to offer more holistic reporting about what life looks like in our communities.”