It was actually because Apple banned Tumblr's app on Appstore because it contains some specialized porn. The decision to ban porn throughout the site was made shortly after that. In December 2018, it was news because Tumblr made a decision to ban porn. In June, it was news because Verizon was asking around for people to buy Tumblr after they realized that the downward spiral was unsolvable. In August, it was news because Tumblr was actually sold, to Wordpress owner Automaticc or Automattic, however way it's spelled. So it's actually 3 separate news. It was a trilogy that tells of the downfall of Tumblr. It's like Der Untergang, but without the awesome acting of Bruno Ganz.
But did Verizon really make that big a loss? I thought Verizon was mainly focused on getting Tumblr since it was one of the biggest platforms in the fight for Net Neutrality a couple years ago, so Verizon bought it June 2017 and during the Net Neutrality fight in the latter half of 2017ish Verizon made sure NN didn't show up on dashboards and if you followed its tag it would automatically unfollow about 20 minutes later. News article: https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/21/...r-net-neutrality-internet-politics-david-karp https://www.thedailybeast.com/tumblr-led-the-net-neutrality-fightthen-verizon-bought-it So the purchase of Tumblr wasn't so much about turning a profit as it was about taking care of a public issue. Verizon has always been anti-Net Neutrality, so even if Tumblr is dead now and they've lost what? $4 billion? it's not a big deal to Verizon who's worth over $260 billion and makes over $15 billion a year.
Sorry mate, Automattic said they still ban porn on tumblr. Also there's possibility for tumblr to be freemium like wordpress.
I'd say tumblr is on life support, if anything they should re-brand the site as something else. The community there has left for other avenues. Once bitten, twice shy. Caution seems to float around nowadays.