To Tumblr or Not to Tumblr

Technology reporter Jenna Wortham lays out the case for and against Tumblr as the next hot thing in social media in Monday's New York Times. Buried deep in the article are some hard numbers about how much traffic Newsweek's ballyhooed feed sent back to its (monetizable) mother site.

Since Tumblr is currying favor among a young crowd, it could prove valuable for traditional companies and media outlets that are trying to build a relationship with that audience. And those [media] companies are no doubt aiming to win points by being early adopters of a site that is on the rise.

Tumblr is still dwarfed by Facebook and Twitter, which each have hundreds of millions of users and can be significant sources of traffic for online publishers.

Mr. Coatney estimated that posting links and notes to the Newsweek Twitter feed and Facebook page sent roughly 200,000 to 300,000 readers to Newsweek's Web site each day. By comparison, Tumblr sent closer to 1,000. But Tumblr is growing quickly. It says it is adding 25,000 new accounts daily, and each month it serves up 1.5 billion page views.

Read the full story at The New York Times.