Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 11:10:38 -0700 From: mlachapelle@imaginemedia.com (Mary LaChapelle) Subject: MacAddict disc update Dear Software Partners, Since 1993, you've known Imagine Media as the publishing company that created coverdiscs - and in the process, opened a new marketing channel for your products, free of cost. With MacAddict, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer, we introduced an editorially driven disc + magazine combo that put your demos into the hands of committed, enthusiast users every month - in their own homes, where they're most open to your products. We created a unique editorial environment of consumer enthusiasm coupled with targeted sampling, and it worked. Sales and marketing people everywhere realized the persuasive, sales-making power of our demo distribution, and rushed to have their demos included on our editorial cover discs. Sampling became a key plank in almost any marketing campaign. Development teams included demos as vital milestones in their production schedules, and came to rely heavily on the targeted distribution our cover discs offered. As all of us are aware, though, our industry has keenly felt the high-tech downturn of the last year. Our magazines are no exception, and we find ourselves unable to continue offering demo distribution free of cost. Therefore, effective with the November issues of PC Gamer, MaximumPC, MacAddict, and Official Xbox Magazine, we'll be assessing a flat-rate Distribution and Handling fee for each demo we distribute. This fee - $5,000 per commercial demo and $500 per shareware demo - will apply to all software selected by our editors for inclusion on our discs. It will help us defray the very significant cost of cover discs, and allow us to continue offering the proven, targeted sampling opportunities those discs provide. Again, this fee is a Distribution and Handling fee, and applies to editorially selected disc content. Your disc editor will ask you to sign permission forms to run your content, including the details and terms of the Distribution and Handling fee. It is not an advertising fee - although advertising opportunities will continue to exist on all our coverdiscs. The disc-and-magazine combination we deliver to readers has always been a partnership between Imagine and you, the software publishers. It's been good for all of us - and I'm eager that our long-standing partnership continue. If you have any questions regarding fees, how this process will be implemented, or anything else, please give me a call at 415-468-4684 ext. 2158 or write me at matt@imaginemedia.com. I want this to work for everyone. Sincerely, Matt Firme Vice President/ Editorial Director Imagine Media matt@imaginemedia.com 415-468-4684 ext. 2158 Mary Lachapelle Marketing Director Imagine Media 415-468-4684 ext. 2417 mlachapelle@imaginemedia.com