Do what you want as long as it's cool

A good chat with Matt Shand, the OG Editor of Massive Magazine

Picture this: It’s 2012 and Massey University has four student magazines. Magneto for Wellington, CHAFF for Palmerston North, Satellite for Albany and Off Campus for Distance. But, after years of unrecorded spending, the student publications have created a ‘black-hole’ in the University’s budget. With the Voluntary Student Membership, and an inevitable audit on-route to campus, the beloved magazines are threatened to collapse underneath themselves, leaving students without a media voice to represent them.

Enter Matt Shand, Editor of Magneto, and a man on a tyrant mission. The game plan is clear: waltz down to the head of Massey University’s office and ask for $300,000 to kickstart a merged student magazine. Little did Matt know, his brave journey into the dragon’s mouth would shape the course of student journalism at Massey University for years to come.

“Crystal ball aside, with the upcoming Voluntary Student Membership it was looking like each student magazine was about to go under.”

Right, then. Not the ideal start to this “shape coursing” story. Unsurprisingly, Matt had a genius idea to persuade his superiors that giving away a large sum of money was somehow a good idea. Matt continues:

“Basically, we wrote an unrealistic proposal saying ‘hey can we please have $300,000?’.”

Exactly what I would’ve done…

“There was a bit of strategy behind it. We pitched it by leveraging our soon to be relationship with Wellington’s journalism school. We thought that if Massive was a high-level magazine, aspiring journalists would want to study here, and in turn the University would make $30,000 a pop.”

Ah, I’m starting to see the mastermind at work.

But was there a realistic chance of securing the funding?

“I thought our chances were slim. It was a real case of a dog chasing a car.”

“But, once it was approved, we knew we needed to create a valuable magazine for all Massey students if Massive wanted any chance of staying afloat.”

At this point in time, student media at Massey University was saved, but the mission had only just begun. A new name was needed to spearhead this student movement, and this call required a larger amount of careful deliberation.

“Cameron Cornelius, the original Designer, came up with Massive. We were throwing around names and thought it sounded cool.”

From there on Matt and Cameron would create eight issues of Massive in 2012. Each one is wildly different from each other, but with a common theme of “having lots of cool stuff” inside.

While cool stuff was the cornerstone of Massive, its staff and supporting parties made the magazine a smashing success.

“The passion that our young reporters were bringing into the game was infectious. This reminded me of the zeal that cold-faced reporters have. It’s that drive to try anything that sets us up for success.”

Behind this drive and a “go for it” attitude, the magazine was a hit with students. Massive had done enough to stay afloat for another year. And, as we know, another nine years after that.

Fast forward to 2022 and Massive Magazine has printed over 100,000 copies of itself. Countless student protests have been led through Massive, breaking stories have been busted, and a lot of comic relief has been provided to students in Wellington, Palmerston North and Albany.

This is no small feat. And looking back at his pride and joy, Matt is content with how the magazine has grown since his departure. Thanks for the tick of approval...

“It’s always hard to let go of your own creation. I have to walk away because ya know, it’s hard looking back and seeing if your baby can walk on its own feet, and as much as you want to correct its course when its falling, you just have to let it be.”

“It's great to see Massive and student media adapting, because it’s a different time now compared to ten years ago. During my stay we put in rule that an Editor had to be a student, or only two years removed from studying. My worst nightmare would be having an old dude running a student mag.”

I may look old but I promise I still fit this vision, Matt.

This was also put in place so students had a like-minded peer to approach for stories. It makes sense, right? Over the years Massive has run some dicey stories that would never grace your local paper’s newsroom. That’s the beauty of being a student magazine. You can say what you want, explore taboo topics and turn a blind eye to the hierarchy saying you can’t do this, or that.

“As the Editor, I wanted to give students an opportunity to push the boat out. If they had a story, we would help get it done.”

“This led to some of our most outrageous work, from driving up to Taranaki for an impromptu fracking story, to assisting people in search of threesome partners. Massive was a place where you could bring your pet project and let it shine.”

After hearing about the threesome adventures, naturally, I wanted to know some other fun stories Matt had written, he pointed me to the first ever piece he submitted to Massive.

“I think it was called Up Your Glass.”

“Basically, RAs had been seen taking away empty liquor bottles from students' accommodation. I thought that was fucked, approached the RA and typed up a story.”

“While it’s not the craziest premise for a piece, it forced change within our halls. That's when I noticed the influence we had as a news outlet.”

“From then on people started to come to us with stories when they wanted to see change. We had a few local artists paint a mural on a Massey University car park. They were threatened with a lawsuit, so they said sorry and painted it back its original colour. Massey didn’t care about this apology and looked to pursue the lawsuit, and yet again, we thought that was fucked and wrote a story on it. Massey dropped the charges and we had shown the influence of a united student body.”

After his tenure at Massive, Matt did what any smart man would, and moved on to bigger and better things within the journalism world. He cut his teeth at the Parramatta Advertiser in Australia as a Sport, Crime and Politics Reporter, which he described as “all basically the same thing in Western Sydney'', before returning to Aotearoa to work in various newsrooms across the motū.

Matt received a glimpse of fame as the Stuff journalist who - in true student-media fashion - exposed the corrupt old guy when Winston Peters and the New Zealand First Fund were caught embezzling money. As an accomplished journalist, Matt had some wise words for upcoming writers looking to cut their teeth at Massive.

“Having your work physically printed is the best feeling. And it will also set you up for the future. Don’t shy away from the opportunity in front of you.”

“Oh, and make sure what you're writing about is cool.”

You heard it here first, folks.

Some may liken Matt to a student media superhero. I like to paint Matt as a student-media superhero, and an all-around good dude. What I’ve learnt from the legacy he and the late Cameron Cornelius left behind, is that student media will always be important, so fight for it, and don’t let it slip through the cracks, even if you end up creating ten more black holes in the budget.