Why?: I don’t believe newsletters are read as much as they once were, because

• Too much information at one time;
• Too much information inundating people’s lives, period;
• Too much email to read; and
• Too much work to do, leaving too little time to read.

Marketing Solution: Turn your newsletter into a blog.

Advantages:

• Shorter;
• Takes up less reader time;
• More focused on single subject (reader can quickly determine if interested);
• Can be done more frequently (and should); …

And according to Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog (who created and hosts this blog), it allows:

• Cost savings  – because of time saved, and reduced production expense;
• Less content  – makes it easier for lawyers to create;
• Content distributed sooner vs. monthly or quarterly;
• Saves marketing staff time – lawyers can post directly to the blog;
• Broader audience – since search engines will find content that can be read around the world;
• Content distributed by RSS and email (readers can choose which);
• Readers can obtain RSS distribution on subjects they want using keywords and key phrases via Google Blog Search and Technorati;
• Potential media exposure – since reporters use key words to track blog topics as mentioned above; and
• Blog’s content is fully searchable – beats trying to locate an older article somewhere on your credenza.

If you or your firm uses newsletters as a business development tool, you might find that a blog is more powerful, cheaper, quicker and more efficient than a newsletter.  Read more in Kevin’s post on "Converting a newsletter into a blog"