But sadly, that same work has put several targets on our backs. We have been accused many times in both countries of working for nefarious purposes for the government of the other. Defending ourselves has incurred enormous legal costs, and, far worse, made it increasingly difficult for us to attract investors, advertisers, and sponsors. While our subscription offerings have been growing strongly and steadily, we are not yet in a position to rely on these revenues to sustain our operations. The media business is precarious, and the politically motivated attacks on us from various interested parties put us in an even worse situation.
We are not prepared to compromise our values for funding. And this week, we learned that a source of funding that we had been counting on was no longer going to come through, and we have had to make the difficult decision to close down.
This decision was all the more difficult because we have just held the most successful event of our company’s history, the NEXTChina Conference in New York last week, and we have just launched Edge, a database product that looked set to dramatically increase our revenues.
But we have a funding shortfall, and we cannot continue in our current form.
We have begun legal proceedings to unwind the company and we will write to subscribers, sponsors, and investors with a more detailed update next week on what this means.
Some of our initiatives and projects may survive the closure of the company, and we will issue updates as our situation becomes clearer in the coming days. We will also publish an FAQ for subscribers, sponsors, investors, and other interested parties tomorrow. Please contact us if you have questions, and we will try to answer as soon as we can.
We’d like to thank all the people who have ever worked for The China Project full time or as freelance contributors. We’ve made some great things together, and we have made the world more informed about China — the good and the bad.
We’d also like to thank all of our readers, listeners, viewers, subscribers, sponsors, and investors for your kind support over the years. We’ve built a great community together. We love you.
It’s been a hell of a ride!
Jeremy GoldkornEditor-in-Chief
Kaiser KuoHead of Podcasts
Bob GutermaCEO
Anla ChengFounder and Chair of the Board
