ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose.Credit:James Brickwood
Participants will discuss local issues,eat at local restaurants and speak with community groups.
ABC head of news Gaven Morris said the move was a"value-for-money proposition[as] Australians are taxpayers and paying for the ABC".
Mr Morris conceded there had been"some parts of the community that we don't serve as well as we could be". Fixing this would involve a closer look at the way stories are commissioned as well as the topics covered,with transport and hospitals likely to be given closer attention.
Two-thirds of Sydney's expected1.3 million population growth by 2030 will be located west of Parramatta and similar trends are being seen across the country.
Our budgets have been going down so we can't invest into more audiences ... we've got to appeal to a broader cross-section of Australia.
ABC head of news Gaven Morris.
People living in Sydney's west will be a focus for Mr Morris,along with Melbourne's east,Brisbane's south and Perth's south west,and regional cities like Newcastle and Geelong.
"Viewers are typically older Australians and,while we love those audiences and want to retain them as much as we can,we do need to look at an audience growth strategy,"he said.