The business model for creating original print content is broken, and the model for creating original web content is unproven.  But Jim Spanfeller, who had great success as CEO of Forbes.com, is making nice progess with The Daily Meal.

His recent results:  5 million monthly uniques after 18 months, the #8 food site in Comscore.

The math behind it:  edit team of 20, each turning out 6 stories per day = 120 stories per day; plus 700 special contributors posting weekly = 100 stories per day; plus user-generated content spurred by a rating system.

Next numbers: 10 million uniques by end of 2012 and aiming for 20 million after that.

The full story from Folio is here.