Will Apple's new product revitalize old media?

Given that we don't know much about it, I've avoided posting about Apple's newest product, which is to be introduced January 27. But there's an excellent story in today's Wall Street Journal headlined "Apple Sees New Money in Old Media" that caught my eye for obvious reasons.

The gist of the story is that Apple's new product, widely expected to be a tablet, will "reshape businesses like textbooks, newspapers and television. . . ." The Apple tablet will be the delivery method for all sorts of old media, revitalizing them since their content would be valuable just as songs are sold on iTunes.

The story says Apple's business plan is to make money by making the content valuable unlike, say, Google's plan where the money comes from Google advertising and content really doesn't matter (or in the case of the Kindle, gouging content providers).

I've long believed that paper versions of newspapers and magazines are easier to digest information from than a website, which generally requires you to drill down to figure out what's in a story rather than the paper version where we quickly scan it. Seems to me that Apple's product has the potential to replicate that experience. It's just a matter of waiting for the actual product to see.