Neighborsgo
Neighborsgo was a weekly community newspaper published by The Dallas Morning News. Each Friday, from 2005 until Friday, January 15, 2016, 10 print editions were distributed to thousands of households in the Dallas area. The material in print editions came from user-submitted material on the Web site, neighborsgo.com, where editors interacted with community members, accompanied by stories and other news items produced by reporters and editors. Neighborsgo was one of several publications produced by major metropolitan newspapers that integrate user-generated and professionally produced media. The publication was shut down and all staff laid off Friday, January 15, 2016.
Background
Neighborsgo is owned by the A. H. Belo Corp. and is part of the Dallas Morning News family of publications. Other Dallas-Fort Worth online, print, TV and radio media outlets often use neighborsgo material in their coverage of community news.
Print edition
In April 2005, The Dallas Morning News launched four editions of a weekly newspaper called "Neighbors." The response to the reader-generated newspaper was positive enough that, by the end of 2006, 12 more "Neighbors" were being published.
In 2015, 10 print editions of neighborsgo are published by The Dallas Morning News every Friday. News subscribers receive neighborsgo with their Friday editions.
Communities
Print editions currently include these D/FW communities:
Allen/Frisco/McKinney
Best Southwest: Cedar Hill/DeSoto/Duncanville/Lancaster | Oak Cliff | Grand Prairie
Garland/Mesquite
Irving/Coppell
Northwest Dallas County
Park Cities/North Dallas
Plano/Murphy/Wylie
Richardson/Lake Highlands/Far North Dallas
Rockwall/Rowlett
Lewisville/Flower Mound
White Rock/East Dallas
Website
The website for the publication is neighborsgo.com , where Dallas-area residents could post news, videos, photos and blogs about their communities. The stories in print editions of neighborsgo came primarily from submitted material on the Web site, which was launched in April 2007.
Once readers post their content on the site, neighborsgo editors published the most relevant stories and photos into one of the weekly print editions.
The Web site for neighborsgo allowed visitors to create an online profile like they would on Facebook. Users could access content specific to their community, communicate with each other, create or comment on blog posts, and share stories in their own words and images.
As of August 2011, more than 27,000 area residents were members of neighborsgo.com. More than 70,000 stories, 45,000 photos and 2,100 videos had been posted online, and the Web site had been clicked on more than eight million times.
The Facebook fan page for neighborsgo is designed to further engage readers and encourage them to share photos and stories about their communities that can be published in print editions.
In April 2009, neighborsgo embraced micro-blogging service Twitter as another way to create connections among neighbors. Their main Twitter account is @neighborsgo .
Jason Castro
The website was frequently used for Jason Castro coverage in early 2008. Jason Castro was an American Idol contestant who hailed from one of neighborsgo's communities: Rockwall, Texas. The site includes videos from before he was discovered all the way up until his homecoming parade after the season ended.
London Levi
The neighborsgo site also covered London Levi's experience on America's Next Top Model, Cycle 12. Levi, a street preacher from Arlington, Texas, was one of the final seven women on the modeling competition reality show. Site contributors and neighborsgo editors followed Levi through the show, writing blog posts every week and commenting on the events of each episode .
Lenny Kravitz
In June 2010, musical artist Lenny Kravitz participated in an impromptu jam session with a church choir in New Orleans that became a popular video on YouTube . neighborsgo.com featured a story about the Voices of Praise choir from Lewisville.
References
- Journalism NEXT and neighborsgo
- Newspaper Trends to Watch in 2008
- The Cake Bride
- Jason Castro coverage
- State Fair photos