While the rest of the world has been making funeral plans for print media since 2005, publishers of every stripe have been doing their best to act like nothing at all is the matter. And that may actually be true for the ones ahead of the curve, with digital publishing up and running for e-Readers and tablet computers.

But on the whole, the magazine and newspaper publishing industries have all struggled over the past decade to formulate a coherent digital strategy as print media’s audience has literally been decimated many times over.  Whether it’s Reader’s Digest, who went from a billion dollar company to filling for bankruptcy last year after losing nearly half of their 8 million-strong readership, or it’s the San Francisco Chronicle losing nearly a quarter of their weekday readership between 2009 ad 2010, periodical publishers have watched their readers flock to the Internet without finding how to meet them there. As recent moves from outlets like Gannett (NYSE: GCI) newspaper behemoth USA Today, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and its Time Inc. magazine division, and News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS) properties such as The Wall Street Journals are proving though, all hope is not lost. Rather than print’s doom, new computer technology might just save the newspaper and the magazine. Albeit in less tangible forms, of course.

USA Today, the second largest newspaper in the United States, announced on Friday that they were completely restructuring the entire publication, laying off nearly 10% of their staff in the process. Rather than having individual editors for traditional sections News, Money, Life, and Sports, USA Today is breaking its newsroom into what they are calling “content rings” overseen by yet-to-be-name editors. As a slideshow shown to USA Today staff last week, this restructuring is meant to emphasize content production on “Web, mobile, iPad and other digital formats.”

It’s the surge in adoption of Internet-capable mobile devices, particularly the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad, the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle, the Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) Nook, and other tablets and e-reader devices fueling this change for USA Today. The new handhelds are re-introducing audiences to the portability offered by traditional print periodicals and, thanks to platforms like Apple’s iAd and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) served Google Ads, bringing publishers and advertisers back together as well.

USA Today‘s announcement last week came hot on the heels of Time Inc. settling its dispute with Apple over how subscribers to its magazines would get digital access on the iPad. Time Inc. has been particularly savvy in bringing their pubs to new reader-friendly mobile devices. The Wall Street Journal preceded the now available People on the iPad, and other Time Inc. publications like Sports Illustrated and Fortune will follow later this year. Apple blocked Time’s subscriptions from being sold on the Apple App Store since Time refused to share revenue from subscription fees, a possible sign of future friction as multiple publishers seek to ditch print in favor of mobile-focused distribution strategies.

News Corp’s plans are perhaps the most ambitious of all. Rupert Murdoch announced earlier this month that his media empire would be developing a brand new, unnamed news outlet specifically for tablet computers and e-readers. The new publication would be made to directly compete with the New York Times and USA Today. Whether it’s in the form of wholly new publications as in the case of News Corp.’s new endeavor or remodeled versions of the old guard as in the case of USA Today, tablet PCs and e-readers seem to finally bringing the transition from print to digital into focus.

Who survives the transition remains to be seen.

As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.

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