An ambitious effort by nonprofit investigative-journalism group the Center for Public Integrity to build readership and revenue has instead led to losses and cutbacks, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.

The magazine examines in detail the center’s direction under John Solomon, a former Washington Post reporter and Washington Times executive editor who joined the organization in early 2010 with plans to supplement the center’s signature long-form enterprise reporting with a daily edition, broadcast content, and faster investigations.

Mr. Solomon developed a new investigative site, iWatch, and negotiated a merger with an arm of the Huffington Post that promised to support new staff positions and significantly increase the center’s Web traffic.

Neither effort panned out, with the Huffington deal providing far less support than expected and iWatch set to be phased out. Mr. Solomon resigned in May 2011 amid a bitter dispute with another center executive over reporting methods used in an investigation of tuna overfishing. In December the center announced a $2-million budget deficit and has eliminated more than a third of its staff.