Important Update

Dear John Doe

The new year brings changes for many organizations, and we are excited to share with you advance notice of some upcoming changes for us. Official public announcements will be posted on the Lewis Media website early in 2009. We have been approached by a third party firm and are negotiating the sale of our Bistro CMS (Webadmin) software. Although we are bound by a nondisclosure agreement and cannot share many of the particulars about the sale or the buyer – we want to let you know what will and won’t change with respect to Lewis Media, your current licenses, and any future business.

What won’t change:

1. ownership of your existing licenses (by your company and/or your clients) remains the same
    
2. your ownership of your clients remains the same
    
3. you will still be able to purchase Bistro and module licenses from Lewis Media
    
4. Bistro licensing and pricing terms will remain the same
    
5. current helpdesk functionality will continue (subject to valid support agreement)
    
6. automatic updates and fixes to the software will continue (although frequency will likely decline due to reduced development). Updates are scheduled for January and February, we are reviewing schedule for remainder of 2009
    
7. updated contact information and news can always be found at www.LewisMedia.com
    
8. the password protected distributors resource area of our website will continue to be available
    
9. for ongoing updates our RSS feeds (Blog, News and Software Updates) will be kept current at www.LewisMedia.com

What will change:

1. With the sale of the software, primary development will no longer be in our hands, so we will not be maintaining a full-time design and development team – as such,  the Kitchener office will be closing.
    
2. With the closing of the Kitchener office, Lewis Media will no longer be able to provide sales consultation, custom programming, design work, cut-up service, or other supplementary services. We have, however, qualified some local technical and design contractors you can draw on. You of course are free to source your own resources. Below is our list including current estimated hourly rates and their areas of expertise:
   
   Kelly Baker  $25-$45 / hr
   kelly@kellybaker.ca
   Graphics, Flash, Themes, CSS, General Web Consulting
   
   Simon Mark  $30-$50 / hr
   marksimo@gmail.com
   Graphics, Flash, Themes, CSS
   
   Jamie Morin   $30-$50 / hr
   angberelius@gmail.com
   Programming, PHP, MySQL, Linux Web Server
   
   Victor Leipnik   $35-$55 / hr
   leipnik@gmail.com
   Programming, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, CSS
   
   Derek Hall   $35-$50 / hr
   dhall@iniquitous.ca
   Programming, PHP, MySQL
   
   Joseph Fung  $150-$175 / hr
   joseph@lewismedia.com
   Web Strategy, General Web Consulting
    
3. Response times for Distributor helpdesk requests – with the closing of the Kitchener office, support will be provided by a part time support person rather than collectively by all Lewis Media staff as it has been in the past, so response times will be longer
    
4. Client helpdesk access - continuing support agreements will be monitored and enforced. Historically the cost of our support activities has been subsidized by custom development and design work and many licenses have been supported beyond the 3 months of free helpdesk support included with the original license purchase. Going forward, helpdesk support will be disabled on licenses where agreements have not been extended and paid for.
    
5. Lewis Media will continue to be an exclusive wholesaler for Bistro CMS to existing distributors. This will enable us to continue providing support to those distributors – albeit with longer response times. The purchaser will not be reselling or supporting the software.

Finally, to keep you informed we have added you to a newsletter list where we will announce new updates to the software and/or support. You will be able to unsubscribe after this initial newsletter if you so wish by clicking the Unsubscribe button below.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

These changes represent an exciting new direction for both Lewis Media and Bistro CMS.  We’ve enjoyed working with all of you and look forward to a successful and continually evolving business relationship.

We wish you all a happy holiday season and a very prosperous 2009!

The Lewis Media Management Team.