The following clip from Josh Gordon’s Ad Sales Blog typifies the most troubling aspect of the digital tablet touchscreen slate fever that’s taken hold of the magazine industry: an obsession with output.

You see it everywhere - in blog posts, tweets, articles, videos, conferences, webcasts, segments on the nightly news - the tablet (whatever that might actually be) will save print publishing.

I certainly understand the attraction - these things are damn sexy and look damn fun to play with. I also see how a device similar to the prototypes embedded across the web could make it easier for traditional print design to transition to the digital world (and why that makes publishers as happy as a pig in shit).

Still, print publishers are kidding themselves if they think a device - even a device as sexy and mysterious as Apple’s unicorn slate tablet - comes at all close to addressing the real troubles that plague legacy publishing operations.

What these publishers are completely blind to is the real revolution that’s underway. It’s NOT a revolution of outputs. It’s NOT a revolution of digital over analog. It’s NOT a revolution of pixels over paper.

IT IS a revolution of decentralized, network oriented, peer to peer communication over hierarchical, command and control, one to many editorial voice.

IT IS an evolution of the reader into the user, the consumer into the producer.

IT IS the beginning of an era where people will be less interested in pre-defined, pre-packaged, pre-made media experiences - no matter how slick.

No friends, the real change happening has little to do with the output device. The true revolution in the magazine industry will be found (if there is in fact one to be found) in the ways publishing enterprises do what they do. Simply redirecting the current media funnel to a new flashy, slick, sexy, mysterious, popular device is not gonna cut it.

In a real revolution publishers would acknowledge that an issue’s life is just starting when it’s put to bed.

In a real revolution publishers would acknowledge that the most important work starts after the copy is finalized, the design signed off on, the files sent to production, and the cover is on the news stand.

In a real revolution revolution publishers would show some sign that they realize that the thing they make - their magazine - is a social object. If that social object is to survive in the digital wild it will need their care, their participation, their continuing attention and love.

In a real revolution publishers would stop concentrating on the things that help them keep their organization the way it always has been and start embracing the things that scare them.

In a real revolution publishers would be developing technologies that demonstrate that they understand how listening is now more important than speaking.

So to all the excited magazine publishers in the world I say this: enjoy the high while it lasts - get your skiff on, your tablet greased, your slate polished - this may be the last little bump you get before the terrible groaning reality of morning sets in and you have to start making real choices.