I'm involved with a newsletter which goes out in multipart/mixed 
format, so that readers whose mailers parse HTML can read it that way, 
and those whose can't, or (like me) don't want them to, get it in 
plain text.  The HTML version has been a profound pain in the butt as 
long as I've been involved: every mailer seems to parse it 
differently, and some render it almost unreadable (for instance, by 
screwing up the wrap at the right margin).

Because we have 750 subscribers, it's a ship which is pretty hard to 
turn, but if it were me, and I were in your position, I'd _never_ 
start sending out HTML email.  Never.  What I'd do -- and what I'm 
working toward here -- is sending out a plain text version with a link 
to a Web page where the tarted-up HTML version can be seen by those 
who find that green sans-serif 40-point caps make a difference.

(I'm talking about a newsletter which is pretty much straight text, of 
course: if the newsletter is full of graphics and links, it might be 
another story -- but even then, and perhaps even more, the 
link-to-a-Website is the way I'd choose to go. HTML email is a problem 
without a solution.)

-- Russ

Russell Hunt
Department of English
St. Thomas University
http://www.stu.ca/~hunt/