• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, February 26, 2014

Tumblr on Wednesday named Sima Sistani to the newly created position of director of media, responsible for developing strategic partnerships with entertainment and media properties. Sistani was previously director of mobile growth operations at Yahoo, which bought Tumblr last year for $1.1 billion.
 
Based in San Francisco, she will report to Lee Brown, global head of brand partnerships for the social blogging site.
 
Tumblr is the land of opportunity for creators and the home of fandom culture. We have something for everyone on the platform, and there is huge potential to leverage the amazing content produced by our passionate community with media and entertainment brands,” stated Sistani.
 
“I’m excited to cultivate these new relationships and increase Tumblr’s presence in the broadcast, publishing and entertainment space.”
 
During Yahoo’s fourth-quarter conference call last month, CEO Marissa Mayer said Tumblr’s user base had grown 30% since last March, with monthly users up 50%. Time spent on the site was also up 50% year-over-year. The company earlier this year announced Yahoo Advertising would power new native ads on Tumblr and provide deeper targeting.
 
While advertising is still nascent on Tumblr, TV networks, such as HBO, USA Networks and Bravo, have long used the site to build communities around shows and promote second-screen activity. Presumably, more of that marketing and projects with entertainment properties are to come with Sistani’s appointment.
 
Prior to joining Yahoo, she worked at Creative Artists Agency and co-founded Rogue Paper, a social TV startup acquired by EarthSearch