By DAVID HAYES and KENNETH C. JOHNSONThe Washington TimesWASHINGTON (AP) — Media Matters, a nonprofit organization founded in 2012 that provides research and analysis to help journalists and the public understand the media, has agreed to pay $3 million to acquire an online news operation, The Associated Press has learned.

The acquisition of the company, which is based in California, comes at a time when the nonprofit has struggled with declining online audiences, and it comes after it spent much of 2016 struggling to get advertisers on its site.

Its most recent ad campaign focused on former Vice President Mike Pence.

The deal will make Media Matters the second nonprofit that Media Matters has acquired since it launched.

It has also bought content from the nonprofit site The Daily Caller and a blog, Media Matters Rising.

The $3 billion purchase is the biggest yet for the nonprofit, which had been on the brink of bankruptcy after losing more than $100 million in a 2015 restructuring.

Its stock has fallen about 20 percent this year as it struggled to get new donors and advertisers on board.

The nonprofit’s board of directors is expected to vote on the acquisition at its annual meeting in March.