Philippines shifts from magazines to digital

The Philippines has joined other countries in shifting from print to digital magazines, signaling an end to the print industry.
Summit Media Philippines, the country's top magazine publisher, has recently announced that it is stopping printing magazines to concentrate on digital content.
In a statement, Summit Media said it would close the print editions of Cosmopolitan, Preview, YES!, Top Gear, FHM and Town & Country to complete its digital transformation.
Other brands of the Mandaluyong City-based company are Candy, Smart Parenting, Spot.ph, Esquire, Spin.ph, Entrepreneur, FemaleNetwork.com, Yummy, Real Living and Summit Storylabs.
Established in 1995, Summit Media first published Preview magazine. Since then, the company transformed into a publishing conglomerate managing 15 websites and social media platforms.
Summit Media said with over 20 million unique monthly users visiting its 15 websites and 33 million more fans following its brands on social media platforms, it is now the Philippines’ leading digital lifestyle network, and one of the top two local digital media companies in the country. 
The company said its expertise in creating data-informed quality content allowed it to reach digital audiences comprising more than 25 percent of the country’s Internet population.
“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,” Summit Media President Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng said.
Gokongwei-Cheng was formerly the publisher of Manila Times, one of the leading newspapers in the Philippines.
“Our brands, each with its own strong voice and well-defined identity, have resonated with our audiences because they stand for something, which is why for 23 years, Summit published the most successful and well-loved magazines in the country’s history,” Gokongwei-Cheng said.
“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,” she 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,” Gokongwei-Cheng said.
“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.
Summit Media said it expects to complete its full digital transformation in April 2018. The 450-strong The company said that in the past three years, it has become the leading creator of digital native advertising content in the country, generating more volume than all competitors combined. 
“On top of this transformation, the company’s other pillars, outside of home (OOH) media, book publishing, and content marketing remain robust,” it said.

12 April 2018