Threat, What Threat?

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Specialists in newspaper finance see strengths where others find doom

Doomsayers notwithstanding, newspapers can anticipate good health for years to come, though they'll likely return to their roots as a medium for elite readers, a university researcher predicts.

In fact, the trend already is underway as upscale readers have become a stabilizing factor in the nation's press, said Jeffrey Brody, co-author with Robert Picard of the book The Newspaper Publishing Industry: A Turning Point. Both teach in the School of Communications at California State University, Fullerton.

Fears about the newspaper industry's survival "are totally out of proportion to the …