Remember that poignant note from Tumblr founder David Karp about the elimination of its in-house editorial department Storyboard? You know, the memo in which Mr. Karp supposedly said he “couldn’t be happier” with the team, listed their accomplishments, and, instead of giving them a raise, fired them. Read More
Earlier this week, Tumblr CEO David Karp took the stage at PaidContent Live for a panel called “Tumblr and the Future of Media.” It was a poignant title considering that one of the topics discussed was Mr. Karp’s recent, rather brusque blog post announcing the end of Storyboard, a high-profile editorial experiment that hired journalists to write features or film documentary video about Tumblr’s community of “creators.”
For example, this Storyboard piece about a photojournalist documenting a gang truce in El Salvador (on his Tumblr) was published by Mother Jones. One about activists and feminists using nail art (and the growing subculture on Tumblr) was produced in partnership with the Daily Beast. Read More
We’ve seen some late-afternoon news dumps, but this takes the cake: Tumblr CEO David Karp just announced that the company is shutting down Storyboard, the editorial experiment meant to highlight the work of the social network’s much-touted “creators.”
Even though Tumblr “couldn’t be happier with our team’s effort,” Mr. Karp wrote that, “What we’ve accomplished with Storyboard has run its course for now.” The editorial team “will be closing up shop and moving on.”
“I want to personally thank them for their great work. And please join us in wishing them well,” he added. Read More
Twitter only recently started to mission creep over to the media side, but microblogging platform Tumblr has always chosen to define itself as a media company. In fact, in an interview with IT Pro published today, CEO David Karp said explained how that self-perception informs their long-awaited attempts to monetize. Read More
Many Tumblr users call themselves “curators,” so it seems only natural that Tumblr has launched its own curation effort with Storyboard. In a video posted on the new site, Tumblr’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Mohney described Storyboard as an effort to highlight content the average Tumblr user might not discover “through their natural organic reading of Tumblr.” Read More
