I'm happy to announce that our new reader advocate -- or more to the point, your new reader advocate -- is Gary Vincent, a former newspaper editor who has spent the past 18 years in the high-tech industry.

And you can learn all about the Hudson resident by reading his introductory column that will appear on the Perspectives section cover of tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph.

Gary replaces John Sias, the newspaper's first reader advocate, who stepped down two months ago to focus his attention on his new role as president of the New Hampshire Prostate Cancer Coalition. (See my blog of May 26 for the item announcing his departure.)

The reader advocate position was created in May 2003 by former Editor Dave Solomon to give our readers an opportunity to bring their questions, criticisms, etc. to an independent source for consideration.

Like John, Gary is not an employee of The Telegraph and as such is free to comment on your observations as he sees fit. That's why the position is known as a "reader" advocate, not a "Telegraph" advocate.

And while it's difficult to know for sure, we believe we are among the smallest -- if not the smallest -- newspapers in the country to have such a position.

During his time in that post, John wrote a monthly column for our Sunday Perspectives section, which Gary will do as well.

But in order to be more responsive to our readers' needs, Gary also will author a blog that will appear shortly on our main blogs page. That will allow Gary and our readers to engage in conversation on a more timely basis.

Finally, in the name of transparency, I want you all to know that Terry Williams, our publisher, and I worked with Gary when we were employed at The Sun of Lowell, Mass., in the 1980s. As Gary notes in his Sunday column, that will have no bearing on the freedom he will have to, in baseball terms, call them as he sees them.

So please take a moment to check out Gary's introductory column. Initially, you will be able to reach him at g_j_vincent@hotmail.com, but we hope to have a readeradvocate@nashuatelegraph.com address up and operating early next week.