Blog feature results in Freemarker exception and does not display blog contents

reproduction :

1) starrtup essentials archetype created project
2) add 'Blog' component
3) rebuild and start

Now, going to 'http://localhost:8080/site/blog' results in no content shown and FTL warnings below

[WARNING] [talledLocalContainer] 15:30:07 WARN [HstFreemarkerServlet] The following has evaluated to null or missing:
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ==> item.title [in template "webfile:/freemarker/hstdefault/blog/blog-list.ftl" at line 9, column 33]
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer]
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ----
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] Tip: It's the step after the last dot that caused this error, not those before it.
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ----
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] Tip: If the failing expression is known to be legally refer to something that's null or missing, either specify a default value like myOptionalVar!myDefault, or use <#if myOptionalVar??>when-present<#else>when-missing</#if>. (These only cover the last step of the expression; to cover the whole expression, use parenthesis: (myOptionalVar.foo)!myDefault, (myOptionalVar.foo)??
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ----
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer]
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ----
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] FTL stack trace ("~" means nesting-related):
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] - Failed at: ${item.title?html} [in template "webfile:/freemarker/hstdefault/blog/blog-list.ftl" at line 9, column 31]
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ----. To see the stack trace, set 'org.hippoecm.hst.servlet.HstFreemarkerServlet' log-level to debug in log4j configuration or runtime via the logging servlet
[WARNING] [talledLocalContainer] 15:30:07 WARN [HstFreemarkerServlet] The following has evaluated to null or missing:
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ==> item.introduction [in template "webfile:/freemarker/hstdefault/blog/blog-list.ftl" at line 13, column 14]
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer]
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ----
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] Tip: It's the step after the last dot that caused this error, not those before it.
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ----
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] Tip: If the failing expression is known to be legally refer to something that's null or missing, either specify a default value like myOptionalVar!myDefault, or use <#if myOptionalVar??>when-present<#else>when-missing</#if>. (These only cover the last step of the expression; to cover the whole expression, use parenthesis: (myOptionalVar.foo)!myDefault, (myOptionalVar.foo)??
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ----
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer]
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ----
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] FTL stack trace ("~" means nesting-related):
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] - Failed at: ${item.introduction?html} [in template "webfile:/freemarker/hstdefault/blog/blog-list.ftl" at line 13, column 12]
[INFO] [talledLocalContainer] ----. To see the stack trace, set 'org.hippoecm.hst.servlet.HstFreemarkerServlet' log-level to debug in log4j configuration or runtime via the logging servlet