The core of the product is a third party lib Newspaper3k. Not sure I would want to pay for the Flask wrapper.
For devs, I open-sourced the full code.
Also, one thing to understand is that it can be quite expensive for some companies to deploy it. They might need servers, developers, testers, etc. In some cases, it is just cheaper to buy it.
Given how popular the project is and the owner's absence, community ownership seems like a no-brainer.
How best do you think to structure this, move it into its own new org?
I also assume it would be good to try and get hold of the creator first?