Jordan Cohen, VP of business development at Pontiflex, said a contact at the Wall Street Journal tells him the paper is giving away ads in email newsletters for free, essentially as added-value as part of a print buy. Content creators -- DailyCandy being an exception -- have not figured out a way to successfully integrate ads into the newsletters. He said CMOs are largely uninspired by the opportunity. They get pumped about Super Bowl ads, but there's a "lack of sexiness" with an email newsletter. Even with an explanation of the potential, Cohen said: "Then he starts …

Lance Broumand, head of UrbanDaddy, which offers emails about entertainment and lifestyle opportunities for men in cities, had 300 subscribers when launched in 2005 and now has 3 million – it’s “GQ or Esquire meets a local guy.” Advertisers include Heineken and LVMH. Recently, though, an example of marketer interest in email campaigns came when Johnny Walker indicated it wanted to heighten email marketing at the expense of other channels. It’s a national advertiser really focused on metrics, something email uses as a calling card, Broumand said. “At the end of the day … there is no more …

Summit emcee Morgan Stewart, CEO of consultancy Trendline Interactive, says there is a "surprising amount of innovation" going on the email marketing space. But, he suggests there needs to be a better way to inspire consumers and not frustrate them. Consumers who speak about email never speak about positives of relevant email, if anything they comment on irrelevant email. "That's a problem," Stewart says. "Relevance is sort of the criterion for not having email that sucks," he says. Email marketers need to strive to "push the limit beyond not sucking to something that actually makes our customers …

Chairman Ken Fadner is kicking off this week's MediaPost Email Insider Summit in Captiva Island, Fla. He announces there are more attendee registrations than any previous Summit, perhaps a sign about an improving economy.