At an investor conference in May, Ann Moore, chairman and CEO of Time Inc., declared the tablet a “game changer.” While it’s too soon to call them a panacea for print, they could prove a boon if they deliver on their promises.

Pad owners are avid readers despite all the games and other diversions on the device vying for their attention, early tracking data suggest. They often pay $4 and up to download a single issue of a magazine. (Apple hasn’t made a subscription option available yet.) Data also suggests they’re spending magazine-like time with the apps they’re downloading -- although some of that is no doubt time figuring out the navigation. Condé Nast, one of the earlier tablet experimenters in the publishing world, has found that users are spending upwards of 60 minutes with its iPad (and iPhone) app, suggesting the experience is more like reading a magazine, with the deep engagement that implies, than it is the drive-by nature of the Web.

“This is a magazine,” says Lou Cona, evp, Condé Nast Media Group, which is conducting focus groups to learn about people’s usage habits. “It’s not a television set and it’s not the Web. We know it’s a lean-back experience. They’re spending lots of time with it.”

And publishers that have produced iPad editions say while advertisers hardly returned calls during the recession, their appointment books are now full.

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