Detroit station opens coffee shop billed as ‘front porch’ of its newsroom

Graham Media’s WDIV has opened Fourgrounds, a coffee shop and satellite newsroom designed to give the Detroit station a permanent community presence outside its main broadcast facility.

The NBC affiliate opened the shop July 22, 2026, at 995 W. Ann Arbor Trail in downtown Plymouth, Michigan. WDIV described the concept as a neighborhood gathering place where residents can meet journalists, share news tips and participate in conversations about local issues, according to a press release.

Fourgrounds operates as a public coffee shop while also serving as an extension of the Local 4 newsroom. The station plans to hold “Coffee with the Newsroom” events featuring its anchors and reporters, along with informal question-and-answer sessions and other community programming. 

The location also includes a community board called “What’s Brewing?” that displays neighborhood events, announcements and WDIV headlines on screens inside the cafe. Visitors can submit events, recognize local residents and businesses or send news tips directly to the station. 

“Journalism only works if a community trusts you enough to hand you their stories,” said Stephanie Slagle, vice president, chief revenue officer and general manager of the station, in the statement. “Fourgrounds gives our reporters and anchors a place to earn that trust in person — to sit down with the people of Plymouth and the surrounding communities, hear what matters to them, and go tell those stories the way they deserve to be told.”

WDIV partnered with Detroit-based Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Co., which supplies the shop’s coffee and provides training and technical support. Pastries and other baked goods are supplied by Bittersweet Bakehouse.

The menu includes standard coffee and espresso drinks alongside newsroom-themed offerings. Signature drinks include “Good News,” an iced coffee with vanilla cold foam; “Field Notes,” made with rose, vanilla and espresso; and “Deadline,” which combines coffee, espresso, cream and honey.

The eatery’s name itself is inspired by the station’s Channel 4 virtual channel assignment (spelled out as “four” in this case) combined with the common coffee “grounds” branding. Combined, the name also could be read as a spin on the word “foreground” — a common term in video journalism and storytelling. 

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WDIV is heavily focused on framing the shop as an extension of its newsroom.

“We don’t parachute in for a story and leave. We’re embedded in these neighborhoods — and Fourgrounds is where the newsroom and the community actually share a table,” reads a quote attributed to Kyla Russell, a WDIV reporter.

While WDIV calls the coffee shop a “working satellite of Local 4’s newsroom,” the station doesn’t mention if staff might be assigned to work out of the restaurant on a full or part-time basis. The storefront is also described as the “newsroom’s front porch” in marketing materials. Some of these materials also make it sound as though visitors might regularly being able to “pull up a chair” next to a Local 4 reporter — but stops short of saying how often such an encounter might occur. 

WDIV first announced plans for Fourgrounds in June 2025. At the time, Vice President and General Manager Bob Ellis said the station wanted to make its reporting more accessible and embed its journalists more deeply in the communities they cover. The project was initially expected to open later that year.

Fourgrounds is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. 

WDIV noted that the venture is “a model few, if any, local TV newsrooms in the country have tried,” pointing out that it is not a one-time or pop-up-style arrangement.

It also extends a bit beyond partnerships in which networks and local TV stations license their brands to convenience stores in airports, often operated by Hudson News. While the broadcasters’ logos are often featured prominently at these stores — alongside televisions tuned to the channel — the stations often have little involvement in the day-to-day operations of these stores.