Expert of the Week: Chris Lake, editor of e-consultancy.com

The number of experts quoted in the world of journalism is astonishing but the amount of insight these experts offer is depressingly low.

Toady sees a BBC news report asking What's the cost of e-mailing 1.8m people? That is the number of people that the UK government e-mailed in response to an online petition.

For the answer to this question, the BBC ask Chris Lake, editor of e-consultancy.com:

"Last week I had lunch with someone who sends out 180,000 [e-mails] a week as a newsletter, which cost him £600," he says. "That would make it £6,000, but it could be much less or much more."

So, what's the cost of e-mailing 1.8m people? £6,000. Or much less. Or much more.

Thank you Chris Lake. You are my Pointless Expert of the Week.