There are many Perl users that don't paw thru CPAN every day. But (at least, at one time) the newest freshmeat posts were displayed on /. (tho that doesn't appear to be the case since /. CSS'd things - poorly). So the updates hit a much wider audience.

Update:

Ooops, my igorance is showing...I overlooked the /. homepage config, which includes a freshmeat checkbox.. and PerlMonks too!, but doesn't seem to include a CPAN feed.