Matamata editor embraces Facebook

If Hobbiton had a hometown newspaper, it would be the Matamata Chronicle. Matamata, less than an hour’s drive from Hamilton is the nearest town to the movie set used for the Hobbit village in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. And the Chronicle has been a big booster of efforts to film The Hobbit, the prequel to the LOTR trilogy, on the reconstructed set. “Anything that helps Hobbiton will help Matamata,” says editor Joel Maxwell.

Joel took over editorship of the Chronicle, a lively free-distribution weekly, early in 2009. Since then, he’s trying to connect with younger readers with more aggressive reporting and more provocative writing. He hasn’t been afraid to challenge the district council on issues he thinks are important. At the same time, he doesn’t want to alienate long-time readers, many of them retirees from Auckland.

His greatest innovation has been to set up a page on Facebook. Joel grew impatient while waiting for the paper’s parent company, Fairfax, to set up Websites for community newspapers in the Waikato. “We needed an online presence but had zero budget,” he said. So armed with a FlipVideo camera from a local electronics shop, Joel set out to shoot video of community events and newsmakers and upload it to Facebook each week.

The venture has been a huge success. The Chronicle has nearly 1,100 Facebook friends, one-tenth of the Nielsen-audited readership figures for the print edition. Joel shoots three video stories a week, edits them on his PC and uploads them directly to Facebook. A teaser on the front page alerts readers to what they’ll see online. Recent videos include a school assembly celebrating the success of a Future Problem Solving Team, a profile of champion cyclist about to embark on a trip to Canada and a short performance by an 85-year old piano teacher – whose playing is now recorded for posterity.

Matamata capitalizes on the Hobbit connection. The entrance to the tourist-information center resembles a Hobbit hole and a sculpture of Gollum sits in a grassy median in the street across from the Chronicle office. Tourists still flock to the sheep farm that was transformed into the Hobbit village for the movie, paying NZ$64 (US$48) for tickets.

Hobbiton has been in the news lately. After shooting ended for Lord of the Rings, the set was dismantled except for the frames of some hobbit holes. But when the trilogy’s popularity prompted plans for a Hobbit movie, the village got a new lease on life. Crews cleared a road, planted fruit trees and started building new hobbit holes. But financial troubles at MGM have stalled the project and Guillermo del Toro resigned as director last month.

In response, Joel wrote an open letter to Peter Jackson, the biggest name in New Zealand filmmaking. On the front page of the Chronicle’s June 2 edition, Joel called for the recently knighted Jackson to move the project along by taking over as director. (He’s already co-writing the script and serving as executive producer.) Joel wrote:

“Taking up the directing reins and completing the Middle Earth Films has a certain dramatic circularity to it. Kind of like a ring, actually. Welcome home, Sir Peter – come back and finish the job you started.”

And though it may not be in response to the Chronicle’s plea, press reports in Hollywood this week indicate that Jackson is in talks to direct not one, but two, Hobbit films for Warner Brothers and New Life Cinema. If that happens, you can read about it on the Chronicle’s Facebook page.
Photo: Red Carpet Tours via Waikato Times