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for fans of Tolkien
'Rings' site co-sponsored by Times and New Line
By Marty Beard
When J.R.R. Tolkien, author of “The Lord of the Rings” fantasy cycle, created the world of Middle Earth, he probably didn’t anticipate the internet or how it would further his legacy.
After the release of the blockbuster film “The Fellowship of the Ring,” Tolkien’s magical universe, with wizards, elves, hobbits and its own vaguely Nordic legends and languages, jumped into the mainstream, out from the domain of fantasy buffs and junior high bookworms.
Thanks to the movies, the intricately plotted good-versus-evil saga, already one of the best-selling series of novels of all time, has inspired an even bigger mass-market curiosity about the mind of the Oxford scholar who made Middle Earth.
The New York Times set out to satisfy that curiosity by creating “The Tolkien Archives,” a web site co-sponsored with New Line Cinema, producers of the movie.
The site is a trove of Tolkien trivia.
“We knew last year–we started working on it about a year ago–that there would be a lot of interest in Tolkien and that The New York Times uniquely had a large amount of material about his career, his life, his work,” says Bill Goldstein, book editor for NYTimes.com, who is in charge of the Tolkien site.
“And using that, we knew we could put together a great retrospective, one that would be something that our audience would want to read. It evolved from there into a larger project and something that we then thought we could get advertising support for.”
Both the Times and New Line are promoting the film through the web site. The package marks The New York Times’s first “brick/click” advertising package for a film studio.
Apparently, the site has met with the mainstream success it sought. As of the end of last year, according to Goldstein, 1.5 million people had logged onto it.
“The audience really responded to it and wanted the information on Tolkien that we had available,” he says.
The Tolkien archives, designated as a “Sponsored Feature,” went live in late fall. It includes archived book reviews from the past 60 years, as well as the movie trailer, behind-the-scenes clips and promotional offers from New Line Cinema, plus slide shows and interactive features such as quizzes.
The lead story on the site is Tolkien’s obituary–he passed away on Sept. 3, 1973. There are also tidbits such as a 1954 review of “The Fellowship of the Ring” by W.H. Auden.
The slide shows include art by Tolkien, such as his depictions of Father Christmas and possible cover art for the prequel to “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “The Hobbit.” About 475,000 people had accessed the slide shows as of the end of last year, Goldstein says.
“The interaction that I’ve had with readers has been markedly favorable and a lot of fun,” Goldstein says.
“I had not bargained when the year 2001 began that I would become the arbiter of Tolkien facts and figures that I apparently was able to be by the end of the year.”
To promote the site, NYTimes.com ran in-house promotional material in its books, arts, and movies sections. Additionally, Goldstein talked about it on television during his weekly book segment on “Weekend Today,” which runs on NBC in New York.
The site has also been promoted through onsite quizzes about “Lord of the Rings” arcana, and through contests and prize giveaways, such as books published by one of the site’s advertisers, Houghton Mifflin, which are signed by the movies’ cast and crew.
Still, the undertaking has managed to attract controversy. Some have been critical that "The Tolkien Archives" blurs the line between advertising and editorial.
The site’s proprietors bluntly dismiss such accusations, saying that no new editorial copy was generated for the site, that the movie itself wasn’t reviewed or covered there, and that New Line had no hand in the editing process.
“I don’t think there’s any way to confuse the advertising itself with the editorial,” Goldstein says. “New Line’s advertising is extremely clear and standard. There are skyscraper ads, there are banners, there are other positions on the site that they’ve paid for.”
While The New York Times is no longer promoting the site as actively, Goldstein suggests that "The Tolkien Archives" will continue to exist in some form as the next two movies in the series are released through 2003, although no plans have been finalized and the Times doesn't have a continuing contractual relationship with New Line.
“We do see long-term interest to the material that we created and put together,” Goldstein says.
“I’m sure that if you came back to the site around Christmas 2003, you’d find some information about Tolkien here.”
The site can be found here.
January 28, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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