I think of the pros for electronic being 1) ease of submitting 2) less paper/better for environment 3) more responsive journals via e-mail. The cons are that everyone is sending work electronically, making for a much larger pool of submissions to choose from and worse chances for publication. Additionally, there is the possibility that one might be less careful with electronically submitted work, because it's so easy to send.
The pros for print publication are 1) slower but more careful submission 2) some editors seem to like it 3) may not be as easily lost as an e-mail. Sure, it's cumbersome, but it's great to come home and check the mailbox for possible acceptances or rejections. The problem, of course, is postage and expense. If you're trying to save money, electronic submissions becomes the way to go, whatever the advantages of print submissions are. I may go back to sending print submissions eventually. But for now, electronic is the way to go.
Interesting post. Lately I have been doing more electronic subs, for many of the reasons you cite - cheaper, more efficient, saves trees. I keep a spreadsheet of acceptances/rejections, and when I analyze it, I see that although I have sent many more electronic subs than print ones (probably 3 to 1), my acceptance rate for print is higher. I'm more than twice as likely to get accepted if I sent in a print sub. I think about the reasons why - do my poems look better on paper than a screen? Are there many more submissions submitted electronically (probably!). Also, I wonder if reading print poems is much easier on editors' eyes, as it is on mine.
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