Revenue, reach and readership: How one publisher is expanding his brand (and having fun)

Teri Saylor

Special to Publishers' Auxiliary

Feb 1, 2026

When Matthew Nelson spent a couple of years working as a branch manager at an Enterprise Rent-A-Car business, he had no way of knowing this experience would chart the course of his successful career in media and publishing.

“It was an interesting job, and I learned a tremendous amount,” he said. “The company’s management training program is very good, and I took a lot of lessons I learned during my Enterprise days to build my own company.”

Today, Nelson is president and publisher of Active Media Publishing Group in Aurora, Oregon, located about halfway between Portland, the state’s largest city, and Salem, its capital city.

At Enterprise, Nelson also honed his sales skills, from up-selling clients to more luxurious rental vehicles to selling add-ons like insurance packages.

“I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was actually pretty good at the job,” he said.

The stint at Enterprise was serendipitous, advancing a career Nelson thought about even as a child.

Growing up watching sitcoms on TV, the legacy television show, “Bewitched,” caught him under its spell, and he paid attention to the characters — Samantha Stephens, a modern-day witch who could make magic happen with the twitch of her nose. But it was her husband, Darrin, whose job at an advertising agency caught Nelson’s imagination.

“Darrin was an ad man, and I always thought he had a neat job,” Nelson said. “So that’s kind of where I positioned myself.”

He majored in mass communication and business administration at Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon, and gravitated toward business management, where he paired his sales skills with graphic design and worked hard, long hours, determined to be successful.

“In the beginning, I would sell ads to business owners during the day and at night design their ads,” he said. “The next day, I’d deliver proofs to clients.”

He started Active Media Publishing Group with a collection of coupon magazines in 2000, adding locally generated editorial content over time to increase their value and readership. Today, after 25 years, he publishes a roster of specialty publications and nine newspapers and magazines, including his two newest — the Sandy (Oregon) Standard, which he launched last January, and the Sherwood (Oregon) Sun, which debuted on March 1.

The response has been overwhelming.

In 2023, Nelson bought his first newspaper — the Mountain Times near The Villages of Mt. Hood. It’s a monthly publication distributed to 4,500 households through the mail.

After publishing coupon magazines, buying the newspaper was a logical next step.

“It wasn’t that far removed from what I was already doing — publishing stories and managing content,” he reasoned. “I reached a point where I thought it was time for me to pursue a new challenge, and we’ve been having a ball with it.”

Viewed as an outsider in the close-knit community, Nelson vowed to win over readers by sharing his journey with them and providing them with as much community news and useful information as possible.

“We wanted to make sure we did things right, and the feedback has been amazing,” he said. “So far, I’m happy to report that the community seems to be thrilled with the Mountain Times.”

At 11,240 feet, Mt. Hood is Oregon’s highest peak. It is cherished by mountain climbers and lovers of nature and outdoor recreation. Nelson bought a cabin there and put down some roots. He held an open house at the newspaper and invited the entire community to come out to meet his team. Three of the newspaper’s former owners attended, too. He’s considering making it an annual event.

In 2024, he discovered a newspaper in West Salem that had stopped publishing and added it to his collection.

“I decided to take the plunge and roll the dice to see what would happen,” he said. “The Mountain Times was thriving, and we decided to give the West Side News a go.”

So far, so good, he reports. And the community’s response has been positive.

“Area businesses were quick to support the newspaper again, and it has exceeded anything I could have expected,” Nelson said.

West Salem, Oregon, is a distinct, historic neighborhood in the northwest part of Salem, split off by the Willamette River. It is in Polk County, making it the only part of Salem in that county. The rest of Salem on the other side of the river is in Marion County.

“We publish 15,000 issues a month and mail it to 13,500 addresses,” he said. “We distribute the others to drop points and news boxes around town for people to pick up.

Nelson analyzed data to determine how many issues he needed to produce, how many advertisers he would need, and how many businesses he would need to serve as sponsors. He also calculated the number of contributors and writers needed and the size of the news hole.

His team began calling on customers, including those who had advertised in the past before the paper had shut down, and many of them were convinced to start advertising again.

Nelson calls his publications “good news” magazines and newspapers that highlight public service and stories about communities coming together for the greater good.

The publications cover events, sports, fundraisers, weather and road issues. They also publish a healthy serving of news about local businesses and restaurants, features and obituaries. He regularly adds stories featuring area history features to the mix.

“We only cover politics and state and national news as they impact our local areas,” he said. “My goal is to have as much community-related information in each issue as possible, and I think we do a pretty great job.”

While he’s added a podcast, social media accounts and a digital platform to appeal to a broad audience, at the end of the day, he’s married to print.

For one thing, print works.

“I believe the direct-mail aspect of our business model is the top reason we’ve been able to continue and thrive,” he said. “The best way to serve our customers is to focus on getting our print products into homes.”

Nelson’s view of newspapers is also steeped in nostalgia.

“I love the image of a family sitting in their kitchen having a cup of coffee in the morning and enjoying the newspaper or kicking back in a comfortable recliner while relaxing with the headlines,” he said.

Last year, Active Media published 508 individual issues of its various publications, and this year, it will publish 524. Some magazines come out 12 times a year, some are six times a year and some are produced annually.

The company’s flagship brand is its Community Advantage coupon magazines. All are print first, and Nelson admits it’s expensive to publish that way, but it’s worth the investment because he believes print forges stronger connections with local businesses and residents.

“The postage increase last July was brutal,” he said. “I’ve tried to figure out a way to distribute our publications ourselves, but at this time, as costly as it is, I don’t think there’s any method less expensive than the Post Office.”

He does not skimp on staff, either, and jokingly says his bottom line is driven by the three Ps — postage, printing and payroll.

“I’ve surrounded myself with some good talent, and the team we have put together is amazing,” he added. “We moved to our current office about nine years ago with13 people, and today, we’re up to about 67 employees and contractors.”

Administrative staff, designers, writers, photographers, editors and distributors are at the core of the company’s success. And advertising and marketing professionals add the rocket fuel to keep it all running.

“You can’t launch a rocket without fuel,” he said. “And it’s the job of our sales executives to make sure we have enough fuel to keep our rockets launching.”
Flexibility and creating enough advertising options to satisfy budgets of all sizes is a top ingredient in Nelson’s secret sauce and helps keep the business community engaged. This includes providing value-added amenities and working with clients to get the response they want from their own customers.

“I like to say, ‘if they’re not buying what you’re selling, then sell them what they want to buy,’” he said. “Advertisers are not going to support you just because they like you. They’ve got to see you as a partner in their own success.”

At the same time, he understands his publications can’t be all things to all people.

“We always say about one-third of our population will read our materials from cover to cover, another third will never read any of them and a third will be occasional readers,” he said. “If we get two-thirds of potential readers that are at least interested in our publications, that’s good for us.”
Nelson says he’s been devoted to his business for over 25 years because he simply enjoys it, and he has felt fulfilled when his ideas have come to fruition.

“I can’t tell you how many times we’ve put out the first issue of a new magazine or newspaper or special edition and watched it unfold in real life,” he said. “It makes me happy to go into a business that has advertised with us and hear that their ads worked well for them or hear from readers how much they love our publications.”

With a nod to the difficulties newspapers have faced in the last five years and continue to face today, Nelson responds by staring down adversity.

“We’ve faced COVID, the migration of publishing to digital platforms, postage increases and rising costs, yet we’ve managed to survive and thrive,” he said, adding that he has always trusted his instincts, and that has served him well.

“I’m having fun and really enjoying this aspect of my career,” he said.

Teri Saylor is a writer in Raleigh, N.C. Contact her at terisaylor@hotmail.com