March 22, 2019

Dear Client:

As you know, Paradigm, along with other ATA member agencies, has been engaged in
negotiations with the Writers Guild over the franchise agreement that has governed our four-
decade relationship. While our agents have been reaching out to you individually, I wanted to
clearly articulate to you where we stand as a company.

We have built Paradigm on the promise of distinctive, personalized service. We are proud to be
agents—your agents—and we take fierce pride in helping our clients achieve all of their goals.

That is why the tenor of the current negotiations between the Writers Guild and our
representative body the ATA is both frustrating and troubling. Troubling because in only a few
months, we have been recast from your trusted advocates to your adversaries. Frustrating
because assertions that our motives are “corrupt” clash with the basic tenet of client service
imbued in every Paradigm agent.

The television packaging model has never distracted us from making the client’s creative and
financial goals our fundamental priority. This is true for any client on a packaged show. We say
this with confidence for a simple reason: we operate against the backdrop of the ultimate check
and balance, the right of any of our clients to seek representation elsewhere.

We have never packaged a writer against their wishes not to be packaged, nor have we ever
benefited financially to a greater extent than our client who is the key element. In our view, the
choice for a show to be packaged around them belongs to the client, where it should be. And,
obvious or not, there are no automatic windfalls to packages; we win when our clients win.

It’s readily apparent that the agency business has become far more overhead intensive, as we
provide more business affairs, public relations, market research, film sales representation, and
other services, than ever before. Television packaging, like our other sources of revenue, is re-
invested into our agency to provide these services. It also allows us to invest in promising new
voices that often take time before they find their place in the market. It gives us the ability to
represent clients in any direction in which they wish to grow and to provide the peoplepower to
harness new opportunities in an ever-expanding universe of content. That is simply the
expectation of our clients today, and we see it as our responsibility to keep pace.
Like in any long relationship, we believe there is always room for improvement. In fact, we
agree with many of the proposals presented by the WGA, notably, more transparency, support
for more diversity, getting writers paid on time, and prohibiting free work. A number of the
WGA proposals are, however, simply unreasonable and unworkable. We believe that writers
need a strong guild, and we believe that writers’ interests are best served by a new, mutually
agreeable franchise agreement.

Severing the ties between writers and their agents will only do damage ultimately, depriving
writers of skilled agency representation when they need it most to face the headwinds of media
consolidation and other disruptions to our ecosystem.

The value proposition that comes along with our service is summed up in the simple phrase, For
the Art, For the Artist. That is the principle that guides us, and it continues to this day.

We welcome the opportunity to continue this dialogue with you and answer any and all
questions you have about where we stand and what we believe.

Sincerely yours,

Sam Gores