Soon, all of the blogs on Tumblr will be hosted on WordPress. Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com and Tumblr, announced on Wednesday that it will start to move the site’s half a billion blogs to the new WordPress-based backend.
This update shouldn’t affect the way Tumblr works for users, whom Automattic promises won’t notice any difference after the migration. Automattic says the change will make it easier to ship new features across both platforms and let Tumblr run on the stable infrastructure of WordPress.com. (WordPress.com is a private hosting service built on the open-source WordPress content management software.)
“We can build something once and bring it to both WordPress and Tumblr,” the post reads. “Tumblr will benefit from the collective effort that goes into the open source WordPress project.” However, Automattic acknowledges that the move “won’t be easy.” It also doesn’t say when the migration will be complete.
Since acquiring Tumblr in 2019, Automattic has set its sights on revitalizing the once-thriving blogging platform, with mixed results. After running experiments with live video and considering “core experience” changes to attract new users, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg wrote in a memo that Automattic was reassigning much of the Tumblr team to other projects, saying its long-term goal would be operating Tumblr in “the most smooth and efficient manner.”
