A publishing system is disclosed that can provide direct marketing advertising together with material generated by members of an on-line community, editorial content or material generated by special guests. Individualized electronic mail messages addressed to members of an on-line community can be generated. Each individualized electronic mail message includes information from one or more of advertising submitted by vendors via electronic mail, electronic mail messages received from community members and special guests, and editorial content. The information included in a particular individualized electronic mail message depends on values assigned to the messages from community members, to the advertising from vendors and to the editorial content. The assigned values are indicative of the relevance of the community member messages, the advertising and editorial content, respectively, to particular segments of the on-line community. The information included in the particular individualized electronic mail message also depends on data previously provided by a community member to whom the particular individualized electronic mail message is addressed.