About Summum

Summum

Overview

Summum is a French-language men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine published in Quebec by Les éditions Genex (Genex Communications). Launched in 2003, it is one of the few independently owned consumer magazines in Quebec, and it has survived in print long after most North American men's titles folded or went digital-only. The magazine mixes celebrity interviews and cover features — its covers traditionally feature female models and Quebec personalities — with humour columns, cars, sports, music and pop-culture archaeology aimed at a young male readership. Its website is summummag.com, where print features appear under an "En kiosque" (on newsstands) label alongside web-exclusive articles and a deep archive, under the site's banner description of the title as a "référence en divertissement pour hommes" — a reference point in men's entertainment. Note that the summum.ca domain assigned in some directories no longer belongs to the magazine: it currently serves an unrelated Quebec transport, delivery and snow-removal business called Groupe Summum. The magazine's own online home is summummag.com, and readers should use that address.

History

Summum was founded in 2003 by Patrice Demers, who remained its founder and owner a decade later. A 2008 Quebec media directory (CDMQ) lists the magazine at 410 rue Charest Est, suite 540, in Quebec City, published by Genex Communications, publishing 11 issues a year. The title grew quickly: its October 2013 issue, no. 110, marked the magazine's 10th anniversary, with a retrospective of its best articles, an interview with Demers, and a reader vote on favourite covers that drew more than 20,000 votes, according to the anniversary release issued by Les éditions Genex. The Genex team at that time, as named in the release, included editor-in-chief Marc Gadoury and director general Sonia Rochette. Summum also spawned a companion title, Summum Girl, a men's-magazine-format title aimed at women; both magazines were examined, alongside the Quebec title Homme, in Lori Saint-Martin's 2011 scholarly study Postures viriles, published by Les éditions du remue-ménage, an analysis of how Quebec men's magazines represent masculinity. Saint-Martin observed that Summum Girl was, paradoxically, in her reading a masculine magazine intended for women — evidence that the Summum brand was prominent enough by the end of its first decade to anchor academic study of Quebec popular culture. Publication frequency has slowed with the print market: where the first decade ran at roughly 11 issues a year, the magazine's current numbering — no. 197 for the Winter 2026 edition and no. 198 for Spring 2026, as listed on Zinio — indicates a seasonal, quarterly cadence in 2026.

Content and Coverage

Summum's editorial formula, as shown in its current issues and website, is built around entertainment for men: celebrity interviews and profiles (recent on-newsstand features include pieces on Shania Twain and on the 25th anniversary of the television series 24), humour and opinion chroniques, automotive features such as a history of American muscle cars, and long-form nostalgia pieces about the cultural artefacts of its readers' youth — the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic, heavy metal's breakthrough years of 1983 and 1991, the Monopoly board game and Quebec television history all feature in the Winter 2026 issue (no. 197). The magazine's humour is resolutely Québécois: one current feature is a lexicon of Quebec swear words ("Jurons, crissements et autres tabarnaks"), another revisits the Thursday nights when, as the headline puts it, all of Quebec stopped for the hockey drama Lance et compte. Its website's chroniques archive shows the breadth of the formula over the years — science and the paranormal (the CERN portal, near-death experiences, Bigfoot, the Dyatlov Pass incident), retro "Génération" columns on the 1970s through the 2000s, hockey-card collecting, barbershop culture and the history of the Lego brick sit alongside the swimsuit shoots and cover interviews. Recurring franchises have included the "Dreamteam SUMMUM" calendar, promoted with daily web recaps in 2019, and the magazine marked its 15th anniversary in 2018 with a dedicated feature ("SUMMUM FÊTE SES 15 ANS!"). Features trailed on the website as upcoming include a history of Captain America ("85 ans de lutte contre la tyrannie"), an explainer on artificial intelligence and an investigation of whether your dog is manipulating you, while on-newsstand columns range from a profile of Ryan Reynolds as "le manuel officieux de l'homme moderne" to a starter guide to launching a business in Quebec. The magazine's own app-store description summarises its territory as arts, entertainment, automobiles, sports and current affairs, with covers featuring female models. Its website sorts material into on-newsstand features, web exclusives and archives. Seasonal swimsuit features — the site promotes a "Swimsuit 2026" series — remain a signature element inherited from the classic men's-magazine format.

Audience and Reach

No current audited circulation or readership figure for Summum could be verified from public sources, and none is claimed here. The most recent publisher figures available are the magazine's own, published in its September 2013 anniversary release: Summum stated that it reached more than 346,000 readers each month, placing it, in its own words, "parmi les publications les plus populaires au Québec," with a readership centred on the 18-to-34 age group and composed of 73 percent men and 27 percent women. Those figures are more than a decade old, date from a stronger print market, and are reported here strictly as the publisher's dated claims, not as a measure of the magazine's present reach. Its current audience is reached through Quebec newsstand sales, subscriptions, the summummag.com website and Zinio digital editions.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, summummag.com, carries the current issue's features, web-exclusive interviews and chroniques, and archives going back many years. Digital editions are distributed through Zinio, which lists the Winter 2026 (no. 197) and Spring 2026 (no. 198) editions, and through the Summum app on Google Play, serviced by Zinio and updated as recently as March 25, 2026 — further confirmation that the title remains in active publication. As noted above, the summum.ca domain is no longer associated with the magazine and today belongs to an unrelated delivery and snow-removal company; directory listings that point readers to summum.ca are out of date.

Ownership and Organisation

Summum is published by Les éditions Genex, the publishing arm of Genex Communications, an independent Quebec company. The magazine was founded and owned by Patrice Demers, as documented in the company's own 2013 anniversary release, which described Summum as "l'une des rares publications indépendantes dans l'univers des magazines imprimés au Québec" — one of the rare independent publications in Quebec print magazines. Genex is based in Quebec City: media directories have listed the magazine on rue Charest Est in the Saint-Roch district, with the telephone number 418 266-6166 appearing in both the 2008 directory listing and the publisher's 2013 release. Marc Gadoury was editor-in-chief as of 2013; the current masthead was not published in the sources consulted for this profile, so no current editor is named here.

Contact and Availability

Summum is available on newsstands across Quebec and by subscription, in print and in digital editions through Zinio and the Summum mobile app. The magazine's website is summummag.com. Its publisher, Les éditions Genex / Genex Communications, is in Quebec City and has been listed at 410 rue Charest Est, suite 540, Québec, QC; the publisher's published telephone number is 418 266-6166. The 2026 publishing schedule is quarterly, with the Winter 2026 edition numbered 197 and the Spring 2026 edition numbered 198.