This! I doubt whoever is running the website for the Richmond Times-Dispatch is making more than $75k/year. They're probably also maintaining sites for others papers in their group, and maybe even working on sites for local businesses too.

To pay someone $100k, a business needs to earn $150k assuming a certain level of benefits commonly offered to white collar workers.

Pick your salary. With benefits and overhead it's not going to be far off even in Richmond assuming you can find the right person. Most big media outlets work in more expensive markets.

My point is that you have to make real money to support these businesses, which means figuring out a monetization strategy that results in 10s or even hundreds of thousands of subscribers.