Adam Ford, the former owner of the Christian satire website The Babylon Bee, has assured readers that the site is still in "good hands" after it was sold to a Christian businessman.
In an article published on his website Adam4d.com, Ford revealed that he sold the website to an entrepreneur named Seth Dillon a month ago.
"I'm no longer running it, but it's still in good hands. I thought I'd let you all know what, who, and why," he wrote.
He explained that he still owns a "small piece" of the site but he is "no longer calling the shots."
Ford said that Kyle Mann, who has served as head writer of the site since September 2016, has taken over as full-time editor and publisher.
He said that one of the reasons for his decision to sell the site was to focus on the Christian Daily Reporter, a news aggregation website that he launched in January.
He revealed that the funds to run the Christian Daily Reporter are currently being taken from the sale of The Babylon Bee. He said that his long-term goal for the site is to draw financial support directly from readers through his Patreon page.
Another reason he cited was that he did not like the attention that comes with The Babylon Bee. He admitted that he did not think the satirical website would become so popular and even lead to event invitations and numerous interview requests.
"[I]f you've followed me for some time you probably know how averse I am to the spotlight. It makes me very uncomfortable, especially in person," he wrote.
"As a general rule I never told people that I ran the Bee, but, you know, people find out. And everywhere I go, it's all people want to talk about, and I just don't know how to handle that. I never could get used to it," he added.
Ford further said that he sold the site because he wanted to publish comics from time to time. He explained that he was not able to find the time to work on comics even when Mann was writing much of the content for The Babylon Bee.
The satire site founder also railed against Facebook and Google for having a "practical duopoly on information." He likened Facebook to a "mafia loan shark" giving but also demanding a lot in return. He lamented that there is a "high price" to be paid for using the social media platform, maybe even going to the point of changing worldviews to accommodate the demands of the social media giant.
He expressed his belief that the centralization of the internet could be the one of the most significant threats to the spread of the Gospel.
Ford said that selling The Babylon Bee was "bittersweet," but he said that he is confident that the website will continue to be "one of the greatest things on the internet." He said that the new owner is a "successful businessman who uses his resources for Kingdom purposes."
In an interview with The Weekly Standard earlier this month, Ford said that the website had reached 100 million page views just days after its second year anniversary on March 1.
