Going by the perspective put forth by several panels at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, held in New York this week, media-friendly devices – like iPad, iPhone and others – may bring about a new ray of hope for newspapers and magazines that are being increasingly bogged down by the freewheeling ways of the Internet.

The hotly debated issue at the conference was whether the optimism of the media, with regard to the new devices, is warranted or is a mere fleeting perspective.

One panel debating the issue was moderated by the New York Times columnist David Carr, who said: “A lot of people have suggested that the iPad is a new and significant inflection point for the publishing industry. I think it's a case of when you are a drowning man, everything looks like a lifesaver.”

Meanwhile, saying that the iPad is apparently only one of the first devices in the promising portable media-consumption devices’ arena, angel investor Ron Conway noted during Carr’s panel that the “fantastic” user interface of the iPad will tempt publishers to adapt the content for it.

With reference Web surfers’ perception that content online should be free, Conway added that the iPad delivers a lot better user model than “free;” thereby hinting that selling apps for media-friendly devices may be more lucrative than selling ads around free content to shore up the plunging print sales.