End of an era: Summit Media stops printing glossies

MANILA, Philippines – Summit Media, one of the country’s biggest magazine publishers, announced on April 11, Wednesday, that it had “[completed] its full digital transformation.”

That means Summit Media will be saying goodbye to the glossies it’s been known for.

“The 450-strong company can now be called ‘digital-first’ as it bids farewell to its magazine past, closing the six remaining print editions of brands already thriving online as Cosmo.ph, Preview.ph, Pep.ph, Topgear.com.ph, FHM.com.ph, and Townandcountry.ph,” the company said in a statement posted on its website.

“Today, we embrace the way our highly connected audiences now prefer to consume content. 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,” said company president Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng.

The announcement was bittersweet.

Summit was home to iconic publications, including Cosmopolitan Philippines, Preview, YES! Magazine, Good Housekeeping, FHM, Town and Country, W.I.T.C.H., Seventeen, K-Zone, and the like.

“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. 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,” added Cheng. – Rappler.com