Back in May, FTVLive told you that the PBS station covering the Lehigh Valley was hiring not 1, not 2, but 12 new Journalists in what the station is calling the “Reporter Corps”.

We told you that the station planned to embed these journalists in the ten counties that make up the Greater Lehigh Valley. It was a unique idea and one of those that read the story on FTVLive was Rob DiRienzo and he decided to apply for one of those jobs.

He got the job (and judging by the picture above is one of two males in the “Reporter Corps”) and now tells FTVLIve that the station is ready to launch their new experiment in the next week.

The new show is set for September 17th and it is hoping to be a different kind of newscast. “This newscast is not intended to cover crime, weather and traffic,” said Yoni Greenbaum, Chief Content Officer for PBS39. “It is about the revival of community journalism, which has been eroding steadily over the last decade. We’re telling the stories that nobody else is telling.”

“PBS39 is uniquely suited to handle this type of journalism, as we do not have the constraints of commercial news”, said Tim Fallon, Chief Executive Officer at PBS39. “We have an opportunity to undertake a different kind of journalism, where we are looking beyond the story of the day with a mission to give citizens a deeper understanding of their community.”

“Reporter Corps” journalists are now living and working in the ten counties that make up the Greater Lehigh Valley including, Lehigh, Northampton, Bucks, Montgomery, Berks, Schuylkill, Carbon and Monroe in Pennsylvania, plus Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. The “Reporter Corps” is run by journalists Jim Deegan, Managing Editor and Monica Evans, Executive Producer.

Give the station credit for trying something different, time will tell if it works?