If you run the numbers on the rate card, number of advertisers, and number of impressions (all public knowledge), The Deck works out at somewhere around $2.50 CPM and I bet not all advertisers are paying ratecard. $2.50CPM won't pay anyone's wages on a niche site unless they're getting silly traffic. I love The Deck philosophically but from a business point of view, I wouldn't run their ad unit even if I were invited.

Not many people outside of media circles are talking about the real trend that's going on nowadays (although Monocle magazine keeps sharing the secrets, but their circulation is small ;-)): advertising/editorial crossover and product development. The real money is in building audience loyalty and producing your own premium products or services targeted at them (and not a paywall that just locks up the previously free stuff). Keep an eye out for sites that advertise their own stuff (training courses, merchandise, reports, premium subscriptions) rather than other people's - it's a growing trend.