Some letters simply won't fit everyone's needs. David Fried, editor of the Buyback Letter , is trying to convert all of his subscribers to e-mail readers. Until December, the letter had been mailed through the post office, but Fried said e-mail reduced his costs sharply. Obviously, there is no postage. And e-mail is cheaper than a fax, which involves a telephone call.
Promotion is also cheaper.
He compared that with the cost of direct mailings and mailing lists. Fried hasn't cut his newsletter price, however. And he said about 20 percent of his readers had asked that he mail them a printout of the online newsletter. Hulbert said his own experience with online subscriptions was that the medium can be costly in hours. Not all subscribers are adept at handling e-mail.