I'm excited about the appearance of Lyris because it signals the rebirth of the lowly Internet mailing list. And that's significant because publishers may want to reconsider the use of discussion lists as part of their online services. The rest are running on desktop applications like Microsoft Mail that can be used to run a crude mailing list, without some of the functionality of the aforementioned apps. While mailing lists have long been popular in the academic and research worlds, they haven't really taken off among professional publishers and the corporate world. To be sure, Web threads and Usenet groups have their appropriate uses.
Some forums are so busy and generate so many words that a mailing list is the wrong application.
When a major breaking news event occurs, some readers can't get enough information. When a disaster strikes your community, set up a temporary discussion list for your readers. The list can be terminated when interest in the news event dies down. For a discussion list on a specialized topic. A newspaper Web site might create a mailing list about a topic like a local zoning controversy, where local residents intently interested in the issue join a mailing list to be kept informed of new developments and offer their opinions.