For Axel Springer, the largest newspaper publisher in Europe, the iPad offers a chance at redemption for the industry. "For us, digitalization is very important, we've managed to make 24 percent of our revenue from digital so far," says Mr Münstermann, Head of Strategy and Advertising. "With the iPad, we see the second step with digitization."

In fact, Mr Münstermann says, "we see the iPad app as the new print."

The reason for this optimism is that the iPad can combine the best of both print and digital. The app for Axel Springer's Bild is not like an online portal, but like a print newspaper with a beginning and an end, that can be read online or off. Yet it also allows for digital storytelling, navigation, location based services, online links and other attributes of the digital world.

There are advantages for advertisers too: those who buy print advertisements get the iPad edition without extra charge, but they can upgrade with video or online links. They can also buy an iPad advertisement only, a full page at a time.

Most importantly, the content is paid.

"In print newspapers, we get half our revenue from advertising but the other part we get from our readers, through paid content," he says. "And this is what we lack on digital and it is what's missing in the first wave of digitisation. When we think of a marketing strategy for the iPad, we not only look at the advertising sales, but we have to look at the second chance to establish paid content in the digital world."

Mr Münstermann says the upside of the iPad edition is that it offers paid content, it increases circulation, it has higher usability and it accustoms users to having advertisements in the application.

The downside is a loss of reach compared to free content, there is no ad server so performance measurements are lost (due to its ability to be read offline), advertising has to be adapted to all tablet systems since there is no standard, and the premium target group on the iPad cannot be targeted because it uses the print ads.