Hi Jan,
True, it does sound a little like a design spec, but since I know nothing of WordPress, I had no idea how much information to offer, in order that someone be able to tell if it was do-able.
Based on your response, I could have phrased my question: Should this be done in WordPress, or perhaps via another CMS?
I think your statement of “There’s not really canned plugin or solution for you…” was most helpful; that’s what I wanted to hear.
Incidentally, I posted the same question in a Joomla forum, but reversed. The answer I received there was – it could be done in WordPress, but “your Joomla setup will be more versatile when you need to add functionality and enterprise workflows.” Accurate or not, I have no idea.