Byron Calame, a recently retired editor from the Wall Street Journal, is now the second public editor at the NYT.

Here is some of his June 5 column:

The first public editor, Daniel Okrent, boldly established the genuine independence essential to carrying out the job and elegantly dissected many of the major issues of journalistic integrity. A bit more of a nitty-gritty newspaperman, I hope to raise the blinds at The Times in some new ways to allow readers to get a clearer view inside the newsroom process. Greater transparency, I believe, can help you as readers better understand the news judgments that shape each day's paper - and hold The Times's news staff more accountable.

In the months ahead, there are three new approaches to transparency that I'm especially keen to try in this space: (1) publishing stimulating and thoughtful e-mail messages and letters from readers - with responses from the editors and reporters involved; (2) presenting question-and-answer interviews with key editors and round-table discussions with editors and reporters; and (3) occasionally offering commentary on two or three different topics, rather than one.

I also plan to make greater use of the Web. I intend to post more actual reader e-mails - with responses from Times editors and perhaps from me, if appropriate - on the Public Editor's Web Journal. My first commentary, posted there two weeks ago, questioned the Washington bureau's slowness in pursuing the significance of the so-called Downing Street memo on planning for the Iraq war. (My Web journal can be found at nytimes.com/byroncalame.)

These new approaches all flow from what I see as my three essential obligations to you, the readers:

• Making sure the concerns of readers and the public about the paper are heard - and heeded when they are valid.

• Monitoring The Times's journalistic integrity - which, for me, means accuracy and fairness in both reality and perception.

• Publicly assessing the newsroom's performance in these areas to enhance readers' understanding of the journalistic process and to remind editors and reporters to do their best.