Blogging for journalists – help me with a seminar

For the last several years, I've led some workshops at the annual conference for the Canadian Association of Journalists on computer-assisted reporting. This year, though, I'm going to lead a workshop and participate in a panel on blogging for journalists. I've started asking other journalists for their input as I start to think about what I ought to say and teach. I'll post some suggestions and responses as I get them (names removed to protect the innocent), but I'm looking for all and any input, particularly from journalists in Canada and elsewhere who blog.
From a former colleague who now teaches at a journalism school:

I think the issue of starting your own blog is a complicated one for journalists (we talked a lot about this in my online class). Does the blog represent part of the work the reporter does for the
paper? Or TV station? Is it entirely personal and if so, can the blogger reveal personal
views and biases and still operate as a reporter? What goes on the blog? Rumour you can't publish but want to get out? Is
that fair? All of this makes blogging pretty controversial for the professional journalist.

Here's one from a student in a journalism program at a Canadian university:

I have my heart set on freelancing (I know, I know…but let me experience the poverty before saying “I told you so.”) so my interest would definitely by more along the lines of starting a personal blog. For instance many blogs, yours included, have a little XML logo. I’m 23 and like to think I’m pretty ‘with it’ when it comes to online stuff…but I have no idea whether this is a specific company that has created these blogs (which would be good) or whether you and all the other bloggers out there are just really familiar with the XML language (which would be bad…very bad).
. . . My personal website will be up and running (hopefully) within 24 hours and I definitely would like to add a blog element there, preferably without having to rely on templates that are, frankly, ugly…but free.

And this from a broadcast journalist:

For whatever it's worth, I'm much more interested in
learning how to use blogs as news sources than I am in learning how to
immortalize my own priceless prose. This is no reflection on your blog. It
looks good and has some interesting stories. But most of us already have a
way to get our writing/broadcasting into the public eye. So, I'd be much
more interested in finding how to use blogs as an additional source for
news/features.