whitneymcn on tumblr

Basically, if Tumblr were a city of 42 million,” Ms. Bennett said, referring to the number of Tumblr blogs that exist, “I’m trying to figure out how we cover the ideas, themes and people who live in it.

Jessica Bennett

This is exactly why Tumblr’s decision to add a dedicated writing and editorial staff feels rather different to me from what Buzzfeed and Facebook are doing with their similar hires.

Tumblr is not trying to create additional content for their site in order to get more traffic or hold visitors for longer — Tumblr doesn’t really even have a “site” in that sense — but rather trying to expose and explore what people are already doing with Tumblr. The comparison to a local newspaper is apt.

That coverage certainly can serve as marketing for Tumblr, but I think that’s the wonderful thing about it. Being in a position where a part of your “marketing” budget can effectively go straight into documenting what people are doing with your service is incredible.

I can only think of a couple of other cases where this is being done (or where I think it’ll happen soon), but I sincerely hope it’s a trend.