In April 2005, The Dallas Morning News launched four editions of a weekly newspaper called Neighbors.

It was a small start to something that has gotten much bigger – and better.

The response to this “reader-generated” newspaper was so positive that by the end of 2006, 12 more Neighbors were being published. 

When neighborsgo.com launched April 10, 2007, we figured that our loyal readers and contributors would provide a strong foundation on which to build an online audience.

We figured right.

As of April 10, 2009, we publish 18 weekly print editions, and more than 15,500 area residents are members of neighborsgo.com. More than 32,300 stories, 23,000 photos, 7,400 blog posts and 910 videos have been posted, and the Web site has been clicked on more than 4.4 million times.

Combined, the print and online products represent an effort by The News to be more relevant to Dallas-area communities by asking the people who know them best – their residents – to post their neighborhood news stories and photos directly online.

Everywhere that the neighborsgo print product has appeared, the feedback has been similar: Readers and advertisers find it refreshing to see a publication full of “good news” and like seeing stories and photos about local people and places they knew.

Neighborsgo.com features applications that are common to popular social-media juggernauts such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, including the ability to create a profile and upload stories, photos, blogs and videos.

One thing these sites don’t have, however, is a place for the content to go after it’s posted online.

We do.

Each week, our editorial team publishes the timeliest stories and photos posted on neighborsgo.com into our 18 neighborsgo print editions. 

Two years after our Web site’s launch, the feedback for our print and online products continues to be positive.

During this time, our editors have communicated with thousands of readers.

Since January alone, we’ve met with more than 500 people at area Starbucks. We enjoy these face-to-face meetings and plan to conduct more of them in the coming months so that we can hear what you have to say about the community coverage we’re providing.

On behalf of The Dallas Morning News and the entire neighborsgo operation, I’d like to thank you for sharing your lives and your news with us.

You’re playing a vital part in helping us redefine what a community newspaper can be, and we greatly appreciate it.

To see some of our favorite moments from the past two years, click here.

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Oscar Martinez is managing editor of neighborsgo.You can contact him in several ways - by commenting below, by e-mail at omartinez@neighborsgo.com, on the phone at 214-977-2262 or on something called Twitter at twitter.com/oscarmartinez.