02NEWSJessica RoodenNEW YEAR,NEW BEGINNINGIt’s a new year, and that’s right,this is a new magazine … thefirst of its kind, I might add.Spanning Massey’s three campuses,MASSIVE is New Zealand’sfirst-ever national studentmagazine.Massey prides itself on beingthe country’s ‘defining’ university,and those behind <strong>Massive</strong> haveambitiously re-defined studentjournalism nationwide.With the introduction of theVoluntary Student Membership(VSM) bill in late 2<strong>01</strong>1, it lookedincreasingly likely that Albany’sSatellite magazine and Manawatu’sChaff magazine, like many<strong>FEBRUARY</strong> <strong>2<strong>01</strong>2</strong> - <strong>ISSUE</strong> <strong>01</strong>other financially unsustainablestudent publications, would becomenull and void in <strong>2<strong>01</strong>2</strong>.MASSIVE editor Matt Shand,who was the last editor of Wellington’sstudent magazine Magneto,spearheaded the campaignfor a united Massey student magazine.Though he says he was confidentMagneto could continue,he felt it would be a tremendousloss to student culture in bothPalmerston North and Albany ifthey lost their independent studentpublications.Matt says the biggest differencebetween <strong>Massive</strong> and the previouspublications is its ability to reach36,000 students. And because ofthat reach, he says he thinks andhopes it will be able to “insightchange within the university”.He says it is vitally importantto him that MASSIVE is run asa separate financial entity fromboth the university and the studentunion. “The student magazinecan’t be the voice-piece of theuniversity or the student unions… it needs to be able to critiquethem”. All the others interviewedstrongly agreed with him on thisissue.Like any new venture, there arechallenges that come along withit. Matt acknowledges there wereroadblocks, which he says “mainlystemmed from the fact that ithasn’t be done before in New Zealand”.He says some people wonderedwhether a national publicationwould be financially viableand whether a new publicationwould have enough student by-into make it a success.Because of these valid concerns,industry veteran Brent Weblingjoined the MASSIVE teamat its conception late last year asEditor-in-Chief, providing credibilityand accountability for themagazine. Brent was a journalismstudent at Massey Wellington in1971 when it was still the WellingtonPolytechnic. Since then he hasworked in newspapers, includingThe Dominion, and as a PressSecretary at Parliament.Brent says he doesn’t pretendto know what students these dayswant to see in their magazineand puts that squarely on Matt’sshoulders, but “the idea is thatthe students drive it and I act asan industry sounding board”. Aswell as Brent, who is working primarilyon editorial content, MAS-SIVE has advisers on advertisingand design.MAWSA student president BenThorpe, when asked how he feelsabout the expansion, says bluntly:“We fully support it, quite frankly.Alex Hemma [2<strong>01</strong>1 student president]really laid the groundworkand campaigned along with Mattto make it possible and I am goingto continue that support”.Ben is so enthusiastic about thenew arrangements that he adds:“Quite frankly, I don’t know whyit hasn’t been done in the past.”He says that from a studentperspective some of the challengesof the magazine will be “establishingitself over the other threecampuses – also gaining credibilitynot only throughout Massey,but in the industry itself”.He is, however, optimistic andsays he thinks Wellington studentswould readily embrace<strong>Massive</strong>.MUSA President Alex Jonesagrees, saying that though somepeople on the Palmerston Northcampus were reluctant to seeChaff pass on, he thinks criticswould be “pleasantly surprised athow MASSIVE turned out”, andit would become “a good substitute”.The editor of Chaff last yearwas unable to be contacted forcomment.“The studentmagazine can’t bethe voice-piece ofthe university or thestudent unions … itneeds to be able tocritique them”The last editor of Satellite, StaceyRiordan, is deceivingly morepessimistic at the chances of thesuccess of MASSIVE, particularlyon the Albany campus. Sheacknowledges that new studentswon’t know anything other than<strong>Massive</strong> and older students willbe grateful that there was anykind of student magazine. But shesays that after the re-orientationissue she thinks Albany studentswill tune out because “Albany hasa culture which sets it apart fromthe other Massey campuses, and Idoubt that the new magazine willbe able to successfully addressthis.”In terms of the transition fromSatellite to MASSIVE, Stacey saysshe received very little consultationor communication. She saysthat “as far as I know the only