Like many who appreciate the “coolness” factor inherent in most Mac products, I was curious to see the debut of the new iPad. Supposedly this device will provide a new platform for today’s media to survive as the media of the future. It is true that magazines and newspapers as we see them today — and hold in our hands — can’t survive into the future. Ad revenue has plummeted and readership has declined to the point where I am thankful the L.A. Times even arrives on my driveway each morning with something of a light “thud.” (I’ve watched the Times shrink in pages, sections, page width, and paper thickness to the point where I’m expecting it to show up someday as a small index card on rice paper.) So if the iPad is the savior of journalism as we know it today, here are my hopes for the future: 1. I hope newspapers will still continue to publish paper copies , even if the size of the newspaper is smaller and the amount in the actual newspaper is less. Our school publishes its newspaper on 11 x 17 paper, which is probably just fine for most of us. New Yorkers who don’t get the New York Times enjoy their smaller tabloid-style papers such as the Post . Sure, we don’t read the L.A. Times on subways as New Yorkers hold on to their reading materials underground, but does a newspaper really have to be 12″ x 23″ (or 24″ x 23″ if wide open)? Smaller paper doesn’t mean we’re all getting dumber; it’s just the reality of the new business model that newspapers can’t keep looking the same. 2. I hope newspapers and news magazines find ways to make their content affordable on devices such as the iPad. Sure, the reading of a newspaper may be a pretty elite activity, but it shouldn’t have to be. It used to be that most people read a newspaper, and that was probably a good thing for our democracy. Now, if we all rely on Google news headlines and whatever is showing on Fox news, I think we are on less stable ground. Yes, the media should charge for their content on these new platforms, but I hope they don’t charge so much that only a select few will opt to sign on. Then we all lose, including the media corporations who won’t realize their much hoped for profits. 3. And, finally, I hope the iPad (and its imitators) makes learning about our world more interesting, more fun . There is no reason that one can’t learn something about the world while enjoying the experience. Any good Frontline documentary on PBS proves that point. Or any good documentary for that matter. The iPad needs to have the capabilities to run video and interactive modalities, and the content providers must find ways to make their content interesting to the end user. When these two worlds mesh, then this platform of the future may really serve its intended purpose of breathing new life into information interaction and transmission. I won’t be the first out there to buy the iPad, but someday I may join those legions who will undoubtedly line up in March to sign on to this incipient new technology. For now, I’ll be waiting in my kitchen at 6 a.m. for the ever-shrinking L.A. Times to arrive in its water-proof baggie.