Center for American Progress to sell off ThinkProgress, citing ‘significant’ revenue drop

The Democratic think tank Center for American Progress is selling off its flagship news site ThinkProgress, the organization announced Monday, citing a “significant” drop in revenue in recent years.

“Unfortunately, like so many other news outlets that have relied on advertising to fund its work, ThinkProgress has seen a significant drop in revenue in recent years, along with other financial strains,” Navin Nayak, executive director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, told The Daily Beast in a statement.

“In addition, events over the last few years have underscored the divergent missions of American Progress and ThinkProgress,” he said. “For all of these reasons, we announced to the ThinkProgress staff today that we are searching for a new publisher for the news site.”

The website, which has never turned a profit since it launched 14 years ago during the height of the Bush administration, has been able up to make up for its financial shortfalls with contributions from the CAP and CAP donors, The Daily Beast reported. It will incur about $3 million in losses this year alone.

A CAP Action source told The Daily Beast that they would “conduct a thorough and diverse search of potential publishers,” but they did not reveal whether the site would be shuttered if no publisher was found.

“This is a tough decision since ThinkProgress has been a part of CAP Action almost since its founding,” Mr. Nayak’s statement said. “While ThinkProgress’ financial challenges are unsustainable for an organization like CAP Action, we are hopeful that there are publishers who would be better able to support ThinkProgress’ mission and better positioned to maximize the significant value ThinkProgress has built up.”

Mr. Nayak made it clear that only buyers with progressive editorial leanings would be considered.

“We will only entertain serious proposals from publishers and organizations who are genuinely interested in investing in ThinkProgress and supporting its mission,” he said. “Our ideal outcome is for ThinkProgress to continue the important work done by its journalists under the auspices of a new entity.”