That is an wonderfully well-put observation. Of course, email broadcasting's been around for years, and it hasn't changed anyone's life. I would probably not check in with you every day were it not for your email list. But that headline service gets me to your site more often than not.
Email works very, very neatly with the Web, and with ftp for that matter.
I don't want my computer to start upgrading on me when I have something else to do. Send me an email with the ftp address, and I have complete control over the process.