How do I build a News item page?

Just create a new node type and call it "news". If you don't want users to be able to post news items, configure the permissions accordingly. You'll be able to use the views module to configure blocks like you want. You can create a new page with blocks of content even to display your news items however you want, and give the page it's own menu item. This is how I do my news stuff. I hope this helps.

Hoping that the hard bit is the views.

AFTER creating a new content type you can create a view from this export. (From D5 install)

Firstly, create the new content type call "News item", with a machine name "news" <- do not change the machine name.

Install Views and Views UI if required. (UI is the actual admin interface!)

Import the following view code. This will be a tab on the views admin page.

  $view = new stdClass();
  $view->name = 'recent_news';
  $view->description = 'List of recent news items';
  $view->access = array (
);
  $view->view_args_php = '';
  $view->page = FALSE;
  $view->page_title = '';
  $view->page_header = '';
  $view->page_header_format = '3';
  $view->page_footer = '';
  $view->page_footer_format = '3';
  $view->page_empty = 'There are no current news items.';
  $view->page_empty_format = '3';
  $view->page_type = 'node';
  $view->url = '';
  $view->use_pager = TRUE;
  $view->nodes_per_page = '10';
  $view->block = TRUE;
  $view->block_title = 'News Flash';
  $view->block_header = '';
  $view->block_header_format = '3';
  $view->block_footer = '';
  $view->block_footer_format = '3';
  $view->block_empty = '';
  $view->block_empty_format = '3';
  $view->block_type = 'list';
  $view->nodes_per_block = '5';
  $view->block_more = FALSE;
  $view->block_use_page_header = FALSE;
  $view->block_use_page_footer = FALSE;
  $view->block_use_page_empty = FALSE;
  $view->sort = array (
    array (
      'tablename' => 'node',
      'field' => 'created',
      'sortorder' => 'DESC',
      'options' => 'normal',
    ),
  );
  $view->argument = array (
  );
  $view->field = array (
    array (
      'tablename' => 'node',
      'field' => 'title',
      'label' => '',
      'handler' => 'views_handler_field_nodelink',
      'options' => 'link',
    ),
    array (
      'tablename' => 'node',
      'field' => 'body',
      'label' => '',
      'handler' => 'views_handler_field_teaser',
    ),
  );
  $view->filter = array (
    array (
      'tablename' => 'node',
      'field' => 'status',
      'operator' => '=',
      'options' => '',
      'value' => '1',
    ),
    array (
      'tablename' => 'node',
      'field' => 'type',
      'operator' => 'OR',
      'options' => '',
      'value' => array (
  0 => 'news',
),
    ),
  );
  $view->exposed_filter = array (
  );
  $view->requires = array(node);
  $views[$view->name] = $view;

Scroll down to the filters section and make sure that the news item is selected in the node content type. This is just above the "exposed filter" stuff. (Imports do not work if the names do not match, thus this check.)

Save again. (I find that it requires a second save to work properly anyway)

Go to your blocks admin page and enable the block call "recent_news"

This block will not show until there is something to display, so go to create content and create a new, published, news item

The block should appear after you save the page.