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| (Image Source: Cosmo.ph/Summit Media) |
With an investment of Php1 million from her father who is surprisingly no less than the late John Gokongwei Jr., the then-26-year-old Lisa Gokongwei entered the new frontier of glossy magazine publishing with Summit Media Group and its first title Preview. Two years later, Summit Media has been tapped by Hearst Magazines as the ladder's partner in publishing the Philippine edition of its blockbuster Cosmopolitan magazine. The said partnership deal between Summit and Hearst, according to now Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng, changed the landscape of the local magazine publishing industry and set a new standard for future publications with flying colors.
Over the years, Summit Media has been the leading lifestyle publisher in the Philippines with a slew of local magazines including YES!, Hi!, Rush, Candy, Yummy, Smart Parenting, Real Living and Sparkling. Summit also worked and partnered with international media brands on Philippine editions of FHM, Good Housekeeping, Seventeen, Marie Claire, Top Gear, Prevention, Men's Health, Women's Health, Runners' World, Entrepreneur, GamesMaster, T3, Total Girl, K-Zone, Disney Princess, W.I.T.C.H., Monster Allergy, Martha Stewart Weddings, Town&Country, Esquire, Elle Decoration and Forbes. As more and more Filipinos are connected to the World Wide Web, Summit Media entered the digital space in 1999 with FemaleNetwork.com, a community for self-made and empowered Filipino women. It was followed with digital counterparts for Summit's most popular brands and digital-first brands PEP.ph, spot.ph, StyleBible.ph and SPIN.ph.
Summit Media also entered the fields of book publishing, where many of its titles became bestsellers, and outdoor media, which uses prime real estate for advertising. These fields happen to be Summit's strongest pillars till now. In April 2018, as reported by major news outlets in the country, Summit Media Group announced its full digital transformation and bid a bittersweet but understandable farewell to all of its print editions as it aims to focus on delivering quality content to a larger, wider audience with the advent of smartphones where 90% of Summit's readers are reading on their mobile devices.
As Summit Media continues to make waves in the digital world with over 31 million unique users on its websites and 32 million followers on its social media platforms, Gokongwei Cheng brought in Ashish Thomas as the company's Chief Executive Adviser. Thomas is a seasoned veteran in data, artificial intelligence, digital advertising and monetization as well as an alumnus of Google, Microsoft, InMobi and Singtel among others. It is also able to operate non-stop throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and launched its own online news brand, reportr.world, in an era of disinformation and restricted movement.
For 25 years, Summit Media has showcased its own resilience in the face of adversity overcoming tenures of past Philippine presidents, social issues, terrorism, fake news and other circumstances in today's modern world. However, the celebration of its 25th year anniversary is considered a special one for Summit as the continuing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines and around the world pushes the group to become stronger than before for those who are embracing changes with a consumer-first mindset. For its trubitastic impact in the local magazine publishing scene and the digital world, the neighbor of good news and fresh stories congratulates Summit Media Group and its founder Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng on its 25th year anniversary and is expecting more from the group in the foreseeable future.
