At a time when many news media businesses and newsrooms are striving for technological innovation — AI, social media, vertical video and audio — there’s a local news publisher in Oregon that’s bucking those trends. Their model: Local publications, produced and printed monthly, distributed free of charge, enthusiastically supported by local advertisers. And they’re not just sustaining, they’re growing.
As a kid, Matthew Nelson worked as a paperboy, and so began his lifelong affinity for newspapers. As the owner, president and publisher of Active Media Publishing Group in Aurora, Oregon, Nelson publishes more than 60 local newspapers and magazines today, but his professional path to news media wasn’t a direct route.
The company’s foundation can be traced to 2000, when Nelson started a business developing computer-based training models. He was a new dad; he and his wife welcomed their first child, a son, just four days after he started the company. “We have a nice ‘measuring stick’ for how old the company is,” Nelson said fondly of his now-adult son.
Not long after, the dot-com bubble burst, and he lost some key contracts. “We started doing graphic design, print brokering, things like that — practically anything we could to make a $1,” Nelson recalled. In 2002, he made the smart decision to join the local Chamber of Commerce. He learned the Chamber needed a brochure, so he spearheaded a fundraiser to pay for the project and offered to handle the design and printing. That project launched other print jobs, including a coupon book Nelson sold ads into and distributed in waiting rooms and coffee shops around town. The advertisers felt it was so successful, they clamored to appear in the next one.
Nelson was still “an army of one” at the time. His wife, Catrina, had a full-time job of her own, but helped out with billing. Today, she serves as Active Media’s chief financial officer.
But it was those little coupon books that sparked a new direction for the business: local magazines.
“We started with one city and added another, and I think we ended up with four cities right off the bat,” said Nelson. Initially, they were printed on newsprint, but the day they switched the titles to web presses and glossy stocks was special in more ways than one.
“Almost four years after our son was born when we started the company, we now had another milestone on the day we went glossy — our daughter was born,” he said.
Then came newspapers
The first newspaper Active Media acquired was The Mountain Times, a monthly community paper serving 13 villages around Mt. Hood.
Peggy Wallace had been a graphic designer with paper for more than 25 years. Nelson recalled how she offered to remain on staff for a few months, though she was contemplating retirement. He convinced her to stay on as a paid ambassador.
“Your job,” he explained to her, “is to wander around the mountain like you do, interacting with people as you do, and make sure we keep this dang paper pointed in the right direction.” Wallace asked for a weekend to think it over. On Monday, she called. “She goes, ‘Hello, Mr. President, this is your ambassador speaking,’ and I’m happy to report she’s still with us.”
Over time, the company added staff and required more space. They’ve been in their current facility for nine years and counting. The growth has been rapid and remarkable.
In 2017, the company employed 13 people and produced 35 magazines — each title six times a year. Today, less than a decade later, the company produces more than 60 publications and has a team of roughly 75, accounting for staff members and freelancers.
In 2025, Active Media acquired The West Side Newspaper in Salem, Oregon, breathing new life into the shuttered community paper. “The paper had been gone long enough that the community missed it, and the advertisers who used to be in it missed it. It was a good opportunity to resurrect it,” said Nelson.
He then approached Brit Allen, a journalist in Sandy, Oregon, who’d started her own digital news site after she’d been laid off by Carpenter Media Group, the publisher of the local paper. Active Media acquired her brand and launched a print monthly complement, The Sandy Standard. Allen is now Active Media’s business development specialist.
“That was the first paper I’d ever been involved in that was fully made from scratch. It didn’t exist, and now it exists. And that one’s been going gangbusters,” Nelson said.
In Sherwood, Oregon, Media and Communications Executive Jules Rogers had also started a hyperlocal news site. She’d occasionally work as a freelance reporter and editor for Active Media, as well. Nelson approached her about acquiring the site. “She thought that was a great idea. She’s now on staff with us, and The Sherwood Sun launched March 1st.”
“There is this strong nostalgic pull of getting a newspaper, sitting down either at the kitchen table or in a comfortable chair, and kicking back with a beverage. You open up that paper and just dive in,” Nelson said.
Next came The Canby Chronicle, built off the brand popularity of the company’s existing Canby Community Advantage Magazine.
Nelson described Canby, Oregon, a town of fewer than 19,000 residents, as “magical.” It’s had a recent growth spurt, he explained, but somehow managed to retain its small-town charm. They launched the paper in July and were inundated with story suggestions. The community’s response was “over the moon,” he said.
“Now, everyone gets the paper in the mail, and they can read it or they cannot,” Nelson said. “But we joke and say, ‘Hey, it gives you something to line the birdcage with, or wrap the fish with, or start your fire in your fireplace!’ But what we have found is, people like to read about what’s going on in their community. What’s going on with our neighbors? What’s happening in our neighborhood? Who’s going to fix the potholes down the street?”
The newspapers have companion websites, but Nelson acknowledged that their focus is primarily on the print editions. “Ink on paper,” he said. “That’s been our philosophy for many years, and it still is: ink on paper, and put it in the mail.”
Still, the sites prove adept for pushing time-sensitive information out to an audience accustomed to checking the site in the time between print issues.
“There is a different type of love affair with newspapers. … There’s a community connection that you can’t get with anything else,” Nelson reflected. “It’s not on social media. It’s not on websites. It’s not on television or radio. It’s not even in magazines. It’s a different love affair with newspapers.”
There is a local-always ethos that runs throughout Active Media’s more than 60 titles. You won’t find international news or D.C. politics among their pages. That’s by design. The success of these publications, Nelson contends, is their local context and practicality. He offered an example of the type of stories that resonate with readers. A local high school principal and administrators started an annual graduation walk for the senior class. They’d walk in their caps and gowns through the halls of the local middle and elementary schools.
“The kids in those buildings come out to the halls, hooting and hollering, celebrating the graduation. The teachers and the administrators come out. You get two things happening at the exact same time. You have a nostalgic walk for the kids who used to go to school there when they were younger. … You’re also having all these younger kids be inspired by the students who are graduating,” he said.
“Those are the kind of stories that communities deserve to hear about,” Nelson continued. “I want to tell the stories that would be forgotten if they weren’t told, and that’s why I started newspapers, why I’ve bought newspapers, and why I’m running newspapers — because I want to find those stories and share with the public how awesome each of these different communities are. That’s my mission.”
Gretchen A. Peck is E&P’s editor-in-chief. She welcomes your emails at editor@editorandpublisher.com.
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