The shift of searching to getting is at the heart of the Wired.com pair of pieces that identify the decline of the World Wide Web and the rise of the application in our digital lives.

Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff, one a prominent editor and the other a prominent columnist, have produced companion arguments that the Web is no longer what we use --- that the Internet is a mere conduit for the apps that dominate our time online.

"It’s driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule," Anderson writes. "And it’s the world that consumers are increasingly choosing, not because they’re rejecting the idea of the Web but because these dedicated platforms often just work better or fit better into their lives (the screen comes to them, they don’t have to go to the screen)."

That it's also a more optimal environment for monetization only strengthens the situation, he says.

Wolff, meanwhile, examines how the open Web is closing and reestablishing a corporate hierarchy --- the "collectivist utopianism" is disappearing and a top-down theme is reemerging. The alternative to the Web came as some entrepreneurs sought to have the clout of Google, only without the open-source approach.

Wolff's piece is far more critical of the developments --- of the value of advertising, of the value of the audience, because of search engine optimization. He says we flirted briefly with the "transformative effects" of the Web but now are "returning home" to Apple, Facebook, Spotify and Netflix, all systems that are closed and traditional.

Anderson's conclusion: Blame Us. Wolff's: Blame Them.

Next Issue Media released a study today indicating the U.S. periodical business can recognize $3 billion in interactive revenue by 2014. It's a prediction predicated on some challenging assumptions --- lots of devices, lots of familiarity, touchscreens and colour --- but the Oliver Wyman study identifies some major gains ahead for 230 periodicals:

1. Higher renewal rates of subscriptions if an interactive edition is available --- 64% instead of 55%.
2. Greater revenue from bundled print/interactive packages, something consumers so far like.
3. Bill-me-later interactive editions heavily reduce churn rates to 25% from 45%, again yielding greater revenue.
4. Cross-selling advertising through recommendation engines through the editions will drive revenue from other products.
5. Availability of interactive editions will triple uptake from non-subscribers to the print periodical, to 15% from 5%.

The study nevertheless indicates some immense challenges for publishers: devices need to be encouraged, archival material made available, workflows changed, partnerships established, among other things.

There are two surveys out that suggest a rearranged pecking order in online media trust.

One, from Harris Associates, suggests consumers are more trusting of branded news organizations that of portals. The trust extends through editorial and advertising content, says the survey for the Online Publishing Association.

The second, from Zogby Interactive, suggests that the technology heavyweights still hold reputational sway over the social networks in terms of consumer trust. Microsoft, Apple and Google have higher trust levels than Facebook and Twitter. John Zogby says the new firms don't have the brand equity yet. 

Without any really large story online --- yet --- there are several headlines worth discussing:

1. Facebook is going to launch location-based service soon. Loopt is also going to upgrade its location-based offerings to permit multitasking and location updating.The implications are significant for news organizations aiming to use Facebook for crowdsourcing and storytelling.
2. Apple has issued its new operating system for the iPhone, tailored for the iPhone4 but still applicable to iPhone3.
3. Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post and CNN writes on how non-profit organizations are filling some of the gaps left when newsrooms de-emphasize investigative work.
4. The New York Times announced former editor and publisher Arthur Brisbane as its new public editor. He succeeds Clark Hoyt. The implications of his appointment: As goes the Times in identifying standards for the craft, so can go the craft.

Apple's recent acquisition of Siri, a voice-activated iPhone application, leads Jemima Kiss of The Guardian to speculate that the company is aiming for small-scale, voice-commanded devices in the near future.

As she sees it, a voice-activated  phone could shed the screen and place the technology in a device smaller than an iPod Shuffle, with commands unfettered by menus.

As she notes, though, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has repeatedly denied his company is moving into the search engine business, which a device as she describes surely comprises. Mobile, though, is the next major scramble.

Apple's iPad arrives internationally this Friday. Peter Preston does the math in the United Kingdom for The Observer in the Guardian and calculates its impact will be a pittance in the pot of newspaper financial needs.

It is more than a news device, and that's part of the problem, Preston concludes.

Considering how many newspapers are sold nationally, how many iPads will be sold nationally, and how many users will employ the iPad to consume news, it's a matter "of bits and bobs, not salvation," he writes.

"The iPad – plus heirs and successors, perhaps – isn't some surrogate digital newspaper waiting to rescue Fleet Street. It's different, with a different appeal. It will surely a find a money-coining slot in the digital spectrum. But salvation? That's something else (even before your wife goes upstairs to bed)," Preston argues.

At the moment, Apple is selling more iPads than Macs in the United States as the device emerges in the market.

That consumption curve isn't necessarily going to last, but a new study suggests media tablets will remain hot commodities in the years ahead.

The IDC study suggests the 7.6 million units in play this year will grow to more than 46 million by 2014 in the U.S. Compounded that's more than 57% annual growth.

They will move to nice-to-have devices to essential consumer products, the bullish study indicates.

A key will be development of applications unique to tablets to differentiate them from smartphones and PCs. The implications for the news business are significant as that market grows.

Benedict Evans, a consultant at the Enders Analysis firm, argues in paidContent UK that the Apple iPad doesn't stand to silence the newspaper presses. In short, the prospects for the new device won't generate a viable business model for the paper.

The real question is one of scale, Evans argues. Not enough will be sold, and not enough people will pay for content once they own one, to cover the cost of a newspaper model predicated on the absence of the Internet.

While some have argued that the applications --- and not the subscriptions, per se --- will drive the revenue, Evans suggests the long-term sustainability of the app model shaping consumption is questionable.

"The main impact of the iPad might be to erode further the position of print publications and their websites, by giving all of the web the same portability as a physical newspaper or magazine," Evans writes.

The mobile advertising market is relatively nascent and Apple today unfurled its initiative to gain a larger share of the business.

The iAd is HTML-based, not Adobe-based rich media, and Apple intends to offer developers 60 per cent of ad revenue sold for applications.

Apple believes its approach brings more emotion to the experience and will provide a richer content that keeps you inside your application and site.

The mobile platform's application will be followed later this year by new versions of its operating system and the new iPad. AdAge is less than enthused about the new initiative.

But the Nieman Journalism Lab's Joshua Benton portays it more positively as a shift away from search and toward content. He thinks it opens the door to smaller-paper iPhone apps and perhaps even a Yahoo-style partnership between Apple and publications.

Normally the Reflections of a Newsosaur blog is filled with the dire news of declining newspaper circulation and revenue. But in his latest post, Alan Mutter is sounding a bit of a clarion call to publishers: They can win by using Apple's iPad properly.

For the first time, Mutter says, a device is there to play to the strengths of the print medium's depth of content. Given everyone is starting on equal footing to create applications and functions for the iPad, Mutter believes print publishers can create winning strategies by acting swiftly and decisively.

The strength of print is in its subtle and deep exploration of issues. It is a lean-back medium, a solitary one, and a medium in which drama can be built with words when neither audio nor video is available.

What he advocates (apart from action now) is unclear, but Mutter says it's not feasible simply to migrate content. New functions and depth need to emerge, or else the glaring weakness of print online will be repeated.