The "will it or won't it" debate surrounding whether the iPad will "save" the newspaper industry has been going on since news of its possible existence in Apple's labs surfaced last year. It is still being discussed today, as the iPad is launched in some European countries, Japan, Canada and Australia.

Although other tablet computers, such as Amazon's Kindle, have been on the market for years, they have been mostly focused on reading books in black and white, with few other features or capabilities. The iPad is unique because it creates a new market segment in the gap between laptops and mobiles, CNN blogs noted today.

The new segment created by the iPad gives newspapers a chance to start fresh with readers, many believe, enabling them to charge for their content, a move many wish they would have had the foresight to do in the early days of the Internet. It also creates a new level of interactivity for both content and advertisements, allowing news publishers to give users a more enriched experience in exchange.

But many analysts, executives and industry watchers say that iPad apps should be just one of many tools in news publishers' toolboxes. Newspapers have waited for a saviour long enough, they say; it's time for newspapers to save themselves by using all the tools they have, not just relying on a couple old familiar ones, or placing all their hopes on a fancy new one.

"It's interesting, it's pretty, it has lots of advantages for news," Benedict Evans, from UK firm Enders Analysis, told the Times Online. "But 10 million pay for a daily newspaper in the UK. They spend roughly £30 a month each. There will not be 10 million people spending £30 a month on the iPad any time soon."

Newspapers must harness the iPad's ability to display news and information in a new way. The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and The New York Times already have iPad apps that allow users to navigate maps, play games and read books, the Times Online noted.

Smaller publishers are waiting to see what consumers expect from the iPad, and how much they're willing to pay before they begin creating and launching products for the device, the Financial Times reported.

Newspapers and other traditional media shouldn't wait with baited breath for money to come rolling in via the iPad, Journalism.co.uk reported Wednesday. Research from business and technology analysts Ovum shows that consumers' adoption of the device will be slow, and publishers should instead put in time developing products and a workflow for the iPad as one of many in a wide range of digital and non-digital readers, according to the report, "Reformatting News & Magazine Media."

"It is going to be a competitive, goldrush market and there will be far more application failures than hits," the report stated.

And part of publishers' iPad strategy should, as strange as it may sound, be an investment in print: "The value of the presence of the masthead brand at the newsstand and a print audience is [a] powerful tool for surfacing applications and promoting other premium digital services."

An example of development for digital and print is Wired magazine's new publishing system from Adobe, which will allow the publication to "simultaneously create both the print magazine and the enhanced digital version with the same set of authoring and design tools," a Wired article explained. "The arrival of the tablet represents a grand experiment in the future of media. Over the next few months, we'll integrate social media and offer a variety of versions and ways to subscribe in digital form. We'll learn through experimentation, and we will watch closely as our readers teach us how they want to use tablets.

"There is no finish line. Wired magazine will be digital from now on, designed from the start as a compelling interactive experience, in parallel with our print edition."

The iPad will not save newspapers, nor will it save magazines or even online-only publications. It is, however, an important tool for the future, and one that will continue to evolve. Whether and how newspapers choose to use it as part of their current and future strategies will be an important part of how they plan on saving themselves.