I don't think OP meant in page views, rather in the level or requirements. For example, The Economist has a lot more writers/editors/designers/etc who all have

I don't think OP meant in page views, rather in the level or requirements. For example, The Economist has a lot more writers/editors/designers/etc who all have different needs from the system, many not necessarily very computer literate etc. Page views alone aren't that big a deal in a content website like TC/Econ - you can do plenty of caching, buy more servers etc. Serving the needs of all the various people involved in an Economist-type publication is where the challenge is.