To make their work available to as wide a market as possible, the publication of newsletters, magazines and books forms one of the key elements of most think tanks. Therefore most of these institutions undertake extensive publishing programs and run their own periodicals. Mostly accessible by subscription or individual sale those publications aim at the widespread distribution of their respective ideology. Recently think tanks have also started to discover new media as useful tools for their purposes. A lot of the bigger institutions have set up websites, which provide general information as well as articles and research reports.
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Another difference that can be noted between right and left-wing think tanks concerns their media appearance and media relations. While in 1997 53 % of the U.S. media references made to think tanks involved conservative institutions, progressive think tanks accounted for only16 % of the media citations made to think tanks (32 % centrist institutions). This suggests that the media agenda is markedly influenced by conservative issues and ideology, and therefore leads to a considerable imbalance within the spectrum of political views.
On the other hand the financial resources of right- and left- wing media associated with think tanks also differ appreciably. While conservative foundations provided US$ 2,734,263 to four right-of-center magazines between 1990 and 1993 including The National Interest, The Public Interest, The New Criterion, and The American Spectator, over the same time period four left-of-center publications, namely The Nation, The Progressive, In These Times, and Mother Jones received only US$ 269,500 from foundations.
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