I would take it one step further and say that journalists should use their personal blog as the litmus test for their print stories. If their print readership follows them to their blog, then comments on blog entries, the journalist will increasingly know what is of current interest to the audience to use in their professional realm.

Scott Karp suggested the same thing about a week ago:

http://publishing2.com/2007/05/22/every-newspaper-journalist-should-start-a-blog/

I completely agree that traditional journalists should keep their own blogs and cultivate the relationships they have with their readers.

I don't want to be talked to, I want to be talked with. I always felt as a student that the best professors are the ones who make an effort, either big or small, to get to know their students better.

Why shouldn't journalists do the same?

I would read stories by someone I felt I knew more personally rather than the opposite, and who wouldn't? It's good advice to follow.

I also think that Jason Moore's comment adds a good point as well, reader comments could definitely be used for follow up stories.

That is an excellent point about using your blog to test out new story ideas. I have used my blogs in the past to sharpen my skills as a writer and, more importantly, to understand what really excites other people. Blogs give us a fantastic way to get inside the thoughts of those who share our common interests and allow them to tell us what we're doing right as well as how we can improve. You could be the world's most amazing writer on a particular subject - but if you're not coming from the right angle, who will be reading?

One would think that journalists would leap at the opportunity to blog. It's a free opportunity to file unedited copy in their own style and state an opinion - something they shouldn't be doing when fairly reporting! It's also an opportunity to further elaborate on a position or a piece - or to file a piece their parent company would never publish/air.