It’s not every day that a local publisher in the Philippines gets a franchise to print a localized edition of an international publication. Summit Media would go from printing not just its own magazines to being a conglomerate that has the handle on many global magazines for publishing to the Filipino market. But they have also been keeping up with the times, in particular with the development of digital magazines; and with every title they have transitioned into this, its corresponding hardcopy version was closed. And this Wednesday, they announced the inevitable: the time of Summit Media glossies has ended.
CNN Philippines reports that Summit Media released a statement on April 11 that heralded the end of an era. With the recent completion of their “digital transformation” which set up online versions of their in-house and licensed magazine brands, the last remaining six print magazines they still put out will now cease publication. These titles include “Cosmopolitan Philippines”, “Preview”, “PEP”, “Topgear”, “FHM”, and “Town and Country”. All of these already have digital editions up and running concurrently with the glossy versions, and as they are described by Summit to be thriving, it was now time to close all printing operations.
In the announcement, Summit Media President Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng explained this format shift by means of the increasing number of their readers who have transitioned to digital media on their mobile devices. As we follow them from print to digital, we will continue our relentless pursuit and delivery of quality, up-to-the minute content and a dynamic and engaging editorial experience-this time, aided by data, which now pervades and informs many of our editorial decisions,” she said.
Summit Media emerged into the Philippine publishing scene with their first magazine, “Preview”, in 1995. Since then they have garnered one international publishing franchise after another to greatly expand their reading offerings. Some of the titles that have been part of their printing run included teen magazine “Seventeen” (stopped 2009), kids’ magazine “K-Zone” (stopped 2017) and the Disney Italy comic series “W.I.T.C.H.”, which ended in 2008 with the last story saga officially translated into English.
Cheng noted the birth of Summit Media with pulp-and-ink publications, and thanked the avid readers for their patronage, but the closing of the last of their glossy magazines to focus on digital publishing was simply the next chapter in their company’s history, and their readers’ preferences. “Moving forward and into the future, we are excited as we continue to reinvent ourselves to become an even more compelling destination in a digital era where opportunities abound,” she said in the statement.
Photo courtesy of Summit Media
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