The Globe and Mail

The cream of the New York publishing industry rose to the occasion of the Apple iPad launch, then sat in the shadows for almost an hour as chief executive officer Steve Jobs extolled the gadget's utility for just about everything – gaming, networking, browsing, watching videos – except reading.

The legendary Kindle-killer of the book trade's imagination made no appearance among the iPad's multiple personalities.

But then Mr. Jobs introduced the print brigade, beginning with a New York Times executive. As the executive previewed a nimble, full-colour application of the influential newspaper, it became obvious how important the iPad was to him and his competitors.

Although it may not be designed primarily as an e-reader, the device Apple introduced in San Francisco yesterday was greeted as the potential lifesaver of a drowning industry.

Five of North America's largest trade book publishers – Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette – joined yesterday's party as pioneer suppliers of Apple's new iBook store, clearly hoping the new service would do for their business what Apple's iTunes store did for a music business brought to its knees by piracy.

But those with the most hope invested in the new iPad are newspaper and magazine publishers who are struggling to open new revenue streams as print advertising shrinks and readers seek free content on the Internet.

“It's the best chance especially newspaper and magazine content publishers have, said Kaan Yigit, a Toronto-based new media analyst.

“A predictable, good-looking platform that's more intimate to the consumer and is more ready to replicate some of the features of the printed paper,” he added.

In addition to unveiling its new iPad app this week, The New York Times announced the creation of a new “reader applications” division focused on developing “a digital reading experience similar to a print platform.” In December, five of the biggest magazine publishers in the U.S. combined forces to create a digital storefront, called Next Issue Media, to retail electronic versions of such heavyweight titles as Time, Esquire, Vanity Fair, and Better Homes and Gardens.

The announcement included a video previewing an electronic version of Sports Illustrated on a tablet that resembled an unbranded iPad. At the same time, consortium member Hearst Corp. acted on its own this month to introduce Skiff, which it called “the first e-reader optimized for newspaper and magazine content.” Among others, startup Plastic Logic also released a long-anticipated next-generation e-reader at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. And Bonnier Group, which publishes magazines such as Parenting and Popular Science, also launched a demo of its vision for research and development of digital issues.

“I think the entry of these tablets into wide use will revolutionize the magazine business in a way that will be happy for us,” Condé Nast editorial director Tom Wallace said in an interview at the time. “It is going to change dramatically the way magazines are made, the way magazines are marketed and the way magazines are consumed.”

Given the dramatic success of the Amazon Kindle over the past three years, book publishers are already familiar with the drama. Their enthusiasm for the iPad is based largely on the hope the new gadget will give them more clout in negotiating prices and release dates with Amazon. This week, industry newsletter Publishers Lunch reported that New York's “Big Six” trade publishers had persuaded Apple to adopt a new pricing model that will restrain and potentially eliminate Amazon-style discounting of electronic titles.