It seems like a bad day for Tumblr too, just like Apple has been facing the ire of police and law enforcement officials for its investigators impersonating SF cops.
Tumblr has angered the fashion community, a community which has been feeding Tumblr its bread and butter. The social blogging site is rather famous with fashion designers and followers of fashion that designers usually pay a huge amount of money to Tumblr to be placed on the home page.
One of the industry representatives revealed that Tumblr charges $150,000 for a package that entails the placement of a 190×190 banner ad above the fold and also the ability to promote one’s own blog posts. Sponsorship of Tumblr’s NYFW page and tumblr.com/tagged/fashion cost a lot of money and Tumblr charges $150,000 and $300,000 respectively. It is expected that in a week, the page would generate 1 million impressions which would amount to a CPM of $70. NY Times charges $2 to $3 for a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) while the high end luxury magazine Conde Nast charges $30.
What really pissed off the fashion community is that Tumblr charges $10,000 and more to host a crew of bloggers at fashion events so that they can go ahead and blog about the designs unveiled at such fashion events. Jessica Coghan, director of digital marketing at Starworks Group lambasted Tumblr Fashion Director Rich Tong and accused him of ‘shopping around brands’ just before NY Fashion Week which would begin next Thursday.
Tumblr sends a crew of 16 bloggers who get to enjoy VIP treatment at fashion shows, breakfasts and intimate studio tours at the expense of the fashion hosts. Tumblr may have taken the fashion community a little too carelessly, as they do not really have a corporate approach like Twitter or other companies. Tumblr is hugely popular with browsers who look for fashion related news and images, and if Tumblr upsets the fashion community, it has a lot to lose.
