That isn't a conservative estimate. I worked for a news organization with a staff of about 30. Our budget was around $4.5 million, and we were pretty light on the (expensive) software side. That's also not accounting for profit, which is typically why people do these things.
Interesting, would you mind breaking down the costs a bit more (e.g., fixed costs, cost per journalist, how many journalists vs support staff like IT personnel)?
