Opinion Article

An opinion article, sometimes referred to as an op-ed article, is a commentary written by someone who is independent of the newspaper. These articles are published alongside the editorials,columnists and letters on the two Views pages of the IHT. These are the only pages on which the IHT presents opinions, whether those attributed to the paper, to columnists or to contributors. The Views pagesare entirely independent of the news pages. The editors and reporters of the news department are not allowed to inject opinions into their work, nor to write for the Views pages. The editor of theeditorial pages answers directly and solely to the Publisher.

What is the difference between an opinion article, an editorial, a column and a letter?

Each part of the Views pages has its ownfunction. The editorials in the IHT represent the opinion of the newspaper and its parent, The New York Times. They are produced by the editorial board of The Times and the IHT after discussions in whicheditorial-page editors of the IHT participate by telephone. We also use editorials from the Boston Globe, which is part of the New York Times family of newspapers. Letters to the Editor are the responseof readers to articles or editorials in the paper. The columnists are writers who appear regularly under an arrangement with the paper, whose views do not necessarily represent those of the paper. Theopinion articles are contributed by people from outside the paper and represent their own views.

How do IHT editors choose what to publish?

We usually publish six articles a day on the Viewspages, or about 30 per week. Of these, about a third are by regular columnists, or by contributors to the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times. The rest are drawn from articles we received at the IHT,whether solilcited or unsolicited. We receive about 200 of these each week, so we are compelled to reject many fine articles, and do not have time to explain personally to the writers why we have done...