The discussion about email gets a bit more complicated when email is compared to RSS. First, while email is content sent out over an electronic communications system, RSS is a delivery method used for sending out blogs -- and a great many other things. Email travels the Internet by means of SMNP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), blogs via RSS (Really Simple Syndication). So to liken email to RSS is to compare apples to kiwis, they are not the same kind of fruit .
That comparison also doesn't do justice the growing importance of RSS as a new delivery mechanism for many kinds of content. RSS has been most associated with blogs whose use it fits ideally. Today RSS feeds alert readers when a new blog post is available. There is no time lost in hunting each site for an update. The use of RSS allows the recipient to follow a great many blogs, reading only those posts of interest.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. RSS is also ideal channel for sending out company news, a software update, or a security warning, and it will alert you when new information is in. You can then read what you have been sent at whatever time it is convenient. Because RSS is a "pull" medium, the reader can decide or not to pull the RSS feed in.
RSS also allows the reader to choose exactly the information he or she needs and not every piece of information published. An investor might order financial statements and business news, a distributor, information on a specific product or technology, and an editor, updates on information related to a region or application. RSS is a new electronic delivery system which offers convenience as well as choice.
As as important, RSS can be read by search engines and will effect a company's page rank or "findability" on Google, Yahoo, MSN or any other search engine. I can't overstate the importance of this last benefit as it is not one email shares -- and one which is often overlooked. When you send out a press release, product upgrade, security fix out via RSS search engines will be able to see and point readers to it. Thus, a release sent out over RSS has double value: There first time it is sent out as news and then on an ongoing basis by search engines that will point to the release again and again as the specific subject is searched.
So the discussion should not be about email versus RSS or content versus a delivery mechanism but rather what you can do with content over the Internet that you could never do before.