To the new editor of the time

Congratulations on your appointment to the position of NT News Editor. I hope you will find the position to be rewarding and satisfying.

I have read the NT News since coming to the NT in 1975. From around 1990, I also became a contributor through letters and columns written and published by the NT News and the Sunday Territorian. I also wrote a column ‘ Gray Matters’ included in a weekly supplement, for nearly five years. The column enabled me to reflect upon NT Education and share thoughts with your readers.

There have been several significant revampings of the paper over the years.  The latest change was to the ‘Opinion’ features, which were reduced in scope and became much briefer than previously.

The letters and SMS text section are very crimped and do not allow sufficiently for any expansive comment. There was a time when letters to the editor overflowed into supplementary pages so that opinions could be shared. This overcame any backlog of correspondence.

I thought that the previous two-page opinion spread, allowing for both letters and texts to be separated from each other, was an ideal model.  

In time, a new cartoonist might become part of what is featured. I know that Colin Wicking is a hard act to follow, but there are other good cartoonists with wit and skill. Maybe you could consider a competition to assess replacement talent with editorial and reader reactions, helping to develop a final contender or several persons who might offer cartoons on rotation. We have not had a cartoonist illustration since 31 March 2022. All other Newscorp papers do have a cartoonist.

I sincerely hope that the opinion section of the NT News will not retain its truncated form on a long term basis. If that happens, it may well discourage reader response.

Sincerely,

Henry Gray

October 25 2023