The migration of people from cities to suburbs, new patterns of advertising, a less homogeneous and unified readership, and increasing competition from other media have produced tremendous pressures on daily newspapers. In responding to these pressures, metropolitan dailies are turning from "hard" to "soft" news, away from their poorer urban readers and toward the more affluent consumers of the "life style" sections. Because advertising has replaced circulation as the chief source of a newspaper's revenue, demography has replaced geography in defining its market. Targeting advertising to "desirable" zip codes may also be replacing any interest in "less desirable" readers. Locked in mortal economic combat, newspapers make little effort to attract poor urban readers, but much effort to court the young consumers of the future. Most likely, tomorrow's newspapers will be targeted for special audiences, though the urban poor are unlikely to be among them. On the bright side, the future holds the promise of prospering community papers (and still threatened metropolitan dailies), national papers such as "USA Today," and even electronic newspapers. (JL)