FROM PRINT MAGAZINES TO MULTIPLATFORM ECOSYSTEMS: A LITERATURE REVIEW OF MEDIA CONVERGENCE STRATEGIES IN THE DIGITAL ERA

Abstract

Prior research on print-to-digital transformation has largely examined web migration, newsroom integration, social-media expansion, or business adaptation as separate developments, leaving insufficient explanation of how these changes combine as a developmental organizational process and how platformization creates uneven capability growth. This integrative literature review synthesizes peer-reviewed empirical studies of print-origin media, including expanded magazine-specific evidence, selected through predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria from Crossref and Garuda/SINTA-linked records and updated through 1 September 2026. Eligible studies were screened for methodological transparency and analyzed through thematic synthesis. The findings reconceptualize convergence as a six-layer developmental process: legacy digitization, multiplatform expansion, newsroom and workflow integration, content reconfiguration, audience-and-data orchestration, and organizational/business renewal. The review identifies asymmetric media convergence as a recurrent condition in which outward platform proliferation advances faster than internal capabilities, governance, direct audience relationships, or sustainable revenue structures. Platformization intensifies this asymmetry because algorithms, metrics, data infrastructures, and monetization rules increasingly shape distribution and audience relations. The proposed framework distinguishes digital presence from integrated capability and positions platform resilience, editorial quality, workforce adaptation, and owned audience relationships as conditions for sustainable transformation.