What does journalism cost? That's a question that's being batted around a lot lately as the economic case for and against traditional newsrooms gets made in the press, on the web, and certainly across well-polished boardroom tables.

In an article on J-Source, Kirk LaPointe, managing editor of the Vancouver Sun, argued that when the cost of news is sliced and diced a lot of pricey items like infrastructure, IT, HR, salespeoples' salaries, legal fees, marketing, etc. aren't tossed into the mix.

He's right, running a regular old-school newsroom is expensive and goes far beyond journalists' pay envelopes. The Globe and Mail's cleaning staff wages, for example, are probably the same as the salaries of everybody at This Magazine, twice over.

But, to me, LaPointe isn't making a case for how expensive news gathering must be. He's just itemizing the upper limit. So, to balance that model out, let's examine the low end: Rabble.ca.

I'm on the board of Rabble and get to see the balance sheets, which I will share with you now. Last year Rabble ran its