Newsletters for Authors...Good or Bad?

Happy Monday, and Happy August! 
Summer is disappearing faster than my resistance to succumbing to a newfound Doctor Who obsession. (If you survived that cumbersome sentence, then I congratulate you.)

So today I wanted to talk about Newsletters. You know, those weekly/monthly messages you subscribe to (or didn't, but they come anyway...I'm talking about every single company with whom I've ever made an internet purchase. Yeah, you guys.) resulting in a colorful email that pops into your box and gives updates on stuff?

To tell you the truth, I'm a bit torn on them.

Here's the pros and cons, as I see them.

PROS:
Good for gathering lots of news updates in one formatNice for those who don't regularly check your blog or twitter about newsGreat for family/friends who don't do social media but do emailSites like MailChimp make it easy to produce professional looking newsletters for freeWho really clicks on that NEWS link at the top of your blog/website?If done the right way, the only people who subscribe are the ones who care to read it (as opposed to sending one to everyone on your personal email address list)If they don't like it, they can easily remove themselves from the email list or trash itCONS:Who really reads newsletters, anyway? They just get deleted.Few people will subscribe to them; social media overload is already bad enoughIf people cared about what you were doing, they'd just check your FB/Twitter/WebsiteAnother marketing thing to worry aboutIt takes time to put together (and I'm talking about an informative one that's worth looking over) even if it's made easier by newsletter sitesThey take that whole author-as-salesperson thing a step too far.I subscribe to several newsletters from authors I know. Some I read; some I don't. I'm torn, so in a fit of "I might as well do SOMETHING" I started collecting emails for a newsletter that I may or may not ever send. 
The dreaded sign-up is here. It's actually kind of pretty. Thanks MailChimp. 
But honestly? I don't know if I'll ever use it. Because I would want them to have interesting content, with news that people cared about, and events that people might actually attend. Basically--I'd want to write a newsletter that was worth NOT trashing. 

So for now, I'll keep collecting emails. But be warned--you may never get a newsletter from me. Or worse--you might! 
What are your opinions on email newsletters? Good? Evil? Pixelated shades of gray?