I doubt many working in the media industry ever thought they would see a major city without a daily paper in their lifetime, but that is the scenario Seattle is facing in 2009.

Across the US, the outlook for many newspapers is grim, highlighted by this interactive graph in The New York Times, which itself has borrowed $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze.

Leonard Downie, VP at Large The Washington Post was recently quoted [video] as saying the business models of media “are beyond broken, it’s completely shattered … newspaper companies as we know them are going to disappear.”

Indeed, the business of model of newspapers in a digital age, coupled with the crashing economy do have a lot to do with the current media crisis, but I also think it’s ignoring what has been a growing disillusionment with modern journalism.

The latest Pew Study showed that many people would shrug their shoulders should their local papers die.

As many newspapers struggle to stay economically viable, fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community “a lot.” Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available.

Can we be so quick to blame the business models of newspapers (selling advertisements) when people won’t miss the service (news) they are providing? For years journalists have been regarded alongside used-car salesmen as the least trustworthy profession and every journalist has certainly experienced the polite disdain from strangers when you tell them what you do.

There is something very wrong with the media and the quality of journalism has a lot to do with it. “News” has become so devalued that people are not willing to pay for it.

So while news corporations run around trying to breath life into the heavy carcass of their dying mediums who is nourishing new opportunities in journalism. It depresses me that the fascination we have with new media lies so heavily in marketing and new ways to advertise. Have we forgotten so quickly that news existed long before newspapers and that the modern industry was only born once we got the content right? It’s easy to blame the forces like the internet and the economy for which the media cannot take responsibility. But it’s time to face the music before all we have left is the Emperor’s New Media.

Who is going to be the first to yell that so many do not have real news and very little journlaism on their websites?

Or are we all going to pretend they are still enriching our lives for fear we might be accused of being the ignorant masses?

We have an opportunity for change, let’s not let it pass.