This week, WordPress.com proprietor Matt Mullenweg confirmed his firm could be shifting nearly all of Tumblr’s workforce to different areas at guardian firm Automattic in mild of the social running a blog web site’s continued monetary woes. After acknowledging and explaining the that means behind a leaked inner memo detailing the employees modifications, Mullenweg then went on to discipline various questions on Tumblr’s future in an AMA (Ask Me Something) session on his personal Tumblr weblog. Right here, the exec responded to questions on Tumblr’s plans for current merchandise, like Tumblr Reside, its monetization efforts, insurance policies, and its deliberate integration with the decentralized social networking protocol ActivityPub, which Mullenweg had earlier mentioned was within the works.

TechCrunch’s Amanda Silberling broke the information of the Tumblr re-org, noting that 139 of the location’s staff could be moved to different tasks at Automattic, the guardian firm to not solely Tumblr and WordPress.com, but in addition WP VIP, Day One, Pocket Casts, WooCommerce, and different apps and companies, together with the lately acquired all-in-one texting app Texts.com.

However Mullenweg’s AMA supplied much more perception into how the corporate plans to run Tumblr, the running a blog web site it picked up from Verizon for $3 million in 2019 Although the acquisition worth was a steal — particularly given Yahoo earlier purchased it for over a billion {dollars} — the enterprise itself is dropping $30 million per yr. That necessitated the re-org.

Beneath are a few of the key takeaways from Mullenweg’s trade with Tumblr customers through the AMA, which make clear what’s forward for Tumblr in 2024 and past.

When are the employees modifications occurring?

Mullenweg mentioned the modifications to the Tumblr staff will occur on December 31, 2023. He mentioned the staff will likely be introduced with different tasks at Automattic and can have the ability to rank their prime three picks, as employees is reassigned. The staff impacted is named “Bumblr” which is the interior identify for the product aspect of Tumblr.

The transfer was not a shock, he added — the Tumblr staff has identified for over a yr that if it couldn’t get the income up, a few of them must work on different issues that make the corporate cash.

Tumblr employees being reassigned will have the ability to select from the next: WP.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Day One, Pocket Casts, WP VIP, .Org, Utilized AI, Texts, self-serve promoting (Blaze), Newspack, Pressable, and Gravatar.

Why had been some folks laid off with out being reassigned?

Mullenweg admitted that the corporate, like many, does interact in efficiency administration critiques and typically meaning individuals are let go.

“Automattic is repeatedly hiring and firing folks to attempt to create the perfect open net tech staff on the planet,” he wrote.

In different phrases, some folks had been laid off but it surely wasn’t due to Tumblr’s monetary woes.

Will Tumblr’s localization plans be impacted by the employees modifications?

Mullenweg confirmed that translation and localization will proceed, and should not impacted by the modifications.

What does success at Tumblr seem like?

The WordPress exec mentioned a profitable model of Tumblr would see it turning into a spot that “everybody goes to hang around on-line” with a “billion micro-communities.” He didn’t share specifics, like how a lot cash that will require, although.

What are Tumblr’s monetization plans?

Tumblr as we speak provides a subscription which is presently one of the simplest ways to assist the location, Mullenweg mentioned. Customers can select from both the Tumblr Supporter badge for $29.99/yr or $2.99/month or subscribe to a similarly-priced ad-free providing. Subscribing on the net as an alternative of in-app permits Tumblr to maintain extra of the income because it doesn’t should pay app retailer commissions.

Nonetheless, out of Tumblr’s 11.5 million month-to-month lively customers, solely 27,000 are subscribers (0.2%). If 10-20% subscribed, Tumblr could be in good condition, Mullenweg famous. Then, “we might run the location without end,” he shared.

What’s extra, he mentioned the Tumblr Supporter badge hasn’t been very profitable by itself, with solely 2,300 complete subscribers to that product.

In response to a different query, Mullenweg prompt that Tumblr customers might reward subscriptions, ask folks to subscribe, and be supportive of advertisers and types which can be supporting Tumblr.

He talked about, too, some modifications forward for TumblrMart. Whereas the digital items and subscriptions will proceed, Tumblr will probably should “cut back the bodily stuff” because it was solely worthwhile on a small scale. (And the particular person working it doesn’t wish to anymore, Mullenweg famous.)

In different responses, Mullenweg seemed to be contemplating learn how to assist Tumblr through advertisements in several methods.

What’s the way forward for promoting on Tumblr?

Mullenweg mentioned the overwhelming majority of advert income on Tumblr is from programmatic advertisements, because of various elements, together with the location’s declining site visitors and numerous assaults on manufacturers working advertisements from Tumblr’s consumer base. He added that self-serve advertisements with Blaze have “gone nicely” and that tooling could be re-used throughout Tumblr, WooCommerce, and WordPress.

Nonetheless, he famous that Blaze and Advert-free’s adoption is so small they will’t assist Tumblr’s some 1,000 servers or its worker salaries.

The exec added he’s serious about new methods to permit advertisers to extra simply duplicate campaigns they’re working elsewhere with related codecs, which might increase the standard of Tumblr’s advertisements. This might be focused at manufacturers seeking to transfer some share of their advert funds away from Twitter/X, for instance.

Will Tumblr assist transferring blogs to WordPress.com?

Right here, the exec was a bit obscure on future plans, however mentioned Tumblr as we speak has a full export possibility obtainable and WordPress can import content material. Nonetheless, really transferring Tumblr blogs to WordPress.com could be a “tough migration,” Mullenweg mentioned, however hinted that new expertise like AI will make it simpler.

How will Tumblr’s product change in 2024?

Mullenweg admitted the staff had been unfold too skinny and spent an excessive amount of effort on issues that didn’t work. In 2024, the corporate will “hone in on” the components of Tumblr folks love and put an finish to the issues that don’t work.

He prompt that Tumblr will proceed to innovate, as nicely, saying:

“We’ll proceed [to] keep on the bleeding fringe of what expertise permits and allows, and hopefully present strain for different social networks to step up their recreation, as they’ve with dozens of options Tumblr invented and others adopted.”

Areas of curiosity he cited had been photographs, which he mentioned had been simple, however famous streaming high-res video would should be paid (however not costly.) He additionally famous that Automattic has some video expertise it might lean on with VideoPress.

By way of missed alternatives, Mullenweg lamented the demise of the Publish+ creator subscription, which might have directed all funds to creators with out Tumblr taking a minimize. However misinformation about fan fic writers being sued by copyright holders led to a coordinated assault marketing campaign that led to each launch creator canceling this system, he mentioned.

“It was unhappy, as a result of this was a function customers and creators mentioned they needed, and we prioritized making customers cash over tasks that will make us cash,” Mullenweg wrote.

Is Tumblr Reside shutting down?

The exec hinted that Tumblr Reside — a livestreaming video function that Tumblr customers haven’t favored — might be chopping block. He mentioned that in 2024 Tumblr would “streamline a few of the further issues that had been launched (like Reside) that haven’t gotten the adoption we hoped.”

In responses to different questions, Mullenweg additionally mentioned that Tumblr would “sundown or rollback some issues we tried that didn’t work,” and even outright said that Reside itself will likely be re-assesed in January 2024 as to “whether or not it needs to be part of the Tumblr app anymore.”

How Tumblr is coping with trolls?

The troll query was a bit off-topic when it comes to Tumblr’s future as a enterprise, and as an alternative spoke to the way forward for the location’s tradition. Mullenweg mentioned that he believes “tremendous trolls” solely account for lower than 0.5% of Tumblr’s consumer base. Nonetheless, they will have an outsized impression, he admitted.

Regardless of the employees modifications, the corporate plans to extend its funding in Belief & Security — the staff that offers with bots, trolling, assaults, and hate speech — and can ban accounts participating in these behaviors. It can additionally stop these trolls from registering new accounts and repeating their habits, he mentioned.

What’s occurring with the ActivityPub integration for Tumblr?

Mullenweg introduced a yr in the past that Tumblr would add assist for ActivityPub, the decentralized social networking protocol that helps apps like Twitter competitor Mastodon and others. However, apparently, that venture has been placed on the again burner. A Tumblr worker mentioned it’s now one thing on the “Tumblr Labs” record and is being evaluated.

Within the AMA, Mullenweg solely vaguely cleared up the confusion over the state of the venture by saying that:

“Each future for Tumblr that I’m concerned in will embody it being extra open, supporting extra requirements, APIs, and open supply.” 

Will Tumblr un-ban porn?

Nope. Artwork is allowed, however not “hardcore stuff,” Mullenweg mentioned.