Citizen journalism and NeighborsGo.com: The Dallas Morning News' migration to user-generated content

The Dallas Morning News entered the citizen journalism arena in 2007 with the launch of NeighborsGo.com. This launch marked the beginning of a new direction for the flagship Belo newspaper. The Dallas Morning News is now leveraging the interactive capacity of its online news product to aggregate and publish user-generated content. This unedited content is published in real time and distributed via the Internet for consumers interested in hyper-local news and information from the greater DFW metropolitan area. Furthermore, this strategy is being viewed internally as a potential revenue opportunity for the company as it struggles to maintain profitability during a period of significant print circulation decline.;This multi-method study examines citizen journalism using two distinct methods--a content analysis of NeighborsGo.com (The Dallas Morning News citizen journalism website) and interviews with key Belo Corporation decision-makers operating in the citizen journalism space. NeighborsGo.com is the online component of the larger NeighborsGo brand, which also includes a print version distributed as a zoned insert in the Saturday edition of The Dallas Morning News.