the truth is that people respond differently to "all black" text and text with color photos, white space for visual relief, captions, headlines and color. People do not pick up a text-heavy book that uses small point sizes for fonts and language with a fog index of more than 9th grade, plus no graphics, and enjoy it after dinner. Instead, it's perceived as something to study and therefore needing undisturbed time to read, when higher levels of concentration can be tapped. The purpose, and sole purpose, of copy packaged in the correct design is to lure readers into reading, at this moment, preferably. When text is set aside for reading later, it's oftentimes never read.

So, the issue imho is actually: When will tech folks develop an html email format, script, call it what you may, that will enable recipients to be secure and mailers to cause the behavior they need: reading and then, action.

Perhaps it's impossible. If that's the case, then we need to rethink using direct email as a marketing tool and as an ezine publishing method.

--- Just my nickel...after spending some 37 years as a PR/Marcom professional and being one of the first to "live" in the online space, way back in the days when there were no windows GUIs and we typed commands on a black screen to connect to the internet. It was the wild west then.