Quoting Scott Raun <sraun at fireopal.org>:

> I've decided I'm in search of newsreader.  I'm probably NOT going to
> step into Usenet quite yet, but I do have at least one site that I
> want to try using NNTP and a news reader instead of their web
> interface.
>
> Requirements:
> Text mode
> preferably a Debian Stable package
> talks NNTP, as opposed to requiring a local news spool
> Threading would be nice.
> What would you recommend, and why?

tin meets all your requirements.  It's tried and true, has support for ANSI
colors too.
http://packages.debian.org/stable/news/tin