Interesting idea but to be honest, the color palette is quite distracting - there's too much going on.

* the yellow background for the news items is a show stopper - the text will look just fine on it's own!

* the two-tone peach/cream background for the main content blocks is distracting. instead try a subtle tone for the left section and the page body color for the news section

* the dark grey background + blue headers and footers is not cohesive. make the background a very light grey or creme color (#f8f8f8 for example) and if you want the headers and footers to have a color, I'd make them extend the full width of the page or else make them flat (no-gradient)

Of course, this is all my opinion, and you get what you pay for right? :)

Good luck with this interesting idea!