It is an end of an era. On Wednesday (April 11), Summit Media announced the completion of its digital transformation. Being ‘digital first,’ the country’s biggest magazine publishing house is finally folding up all six remaining print editions of magazines under its portfolio.
According to well-placed sources, FHM, Yes! Magazine, Preview, Cosmo, Top Gear, and Town & Country will release their final print issues in May 2018. Most of these magazines have reportedly submitted their final layouts for printing this week.
In an official statement, Summit Media President Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng said the company will continue its “relentless pursuit and delivery of quality, up-to-the-minute content, and dynamic and engaging editorial experience.”
Respect for audiences
“As we embark on our new journey towards a wholly digital future, we look back at the values that made us successful, and one thing that stands out is our respect for our audiences,” Gokongwei-Cheng said.
“Summit Media was born auspiciously in an era of pulp and ink. We will always owe a debt of gratitude to the medium, to the brilliant teams whose dedication and efforts created magazines that excelled in that landscape, to the generations of loyal readers who not only supported their favorite brands but even imbibed their tenets and values, and to our advertisers, without whose partnership with and belief in us we would not have succeeded,” her statement read.
The 23-year-old publishing house has become the leading creator of local digital native advertising content, generating more volume than all of its rivals combined. Aside from its current roster of digital assets, Summit Media’s other units are also performing well—Outside of Home (OOH) advertising, content marketing, and book publishing.
The biggest magazine publisher in PH
Summit Media presently publishes 15 online titles—most of which are local franchises of international magazines like Cosmo.ph (Cosmopolitan Magazine), Esquiremag.ph (Esquire Magazine), FHM.com.ph (FHM), and Topgear.com.ph (BBC’s Top Gear). It also has several original titles like Spot.ph, Spin.ph, Yummy.ph, Candymag.com, RealLiving.com.ph, and Pep.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal, the online version of Yes! Magazine).
Summit Media launched its first ever glossy, Preview Magazine (now Preview.ph online and formerly StyleBible.ph), in June 1995. In the years that followed, it started publishing a mix of local versions of international magazines and a number of original titles (like FemaleNetwork.com).
It also published discontinued titles like Good Housekeeping, Forbes Magazine, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, and Seventeen. Meanwhile, its Entrepreneur.com.ph (Entrepreneur Magazine, a franchise of Entrepreneur U.S.) is the only credible business magazine website in the country today.
