[KTBleeding]

Don't buy phpcow. It's been a while, but I've read nothing but horrible reviews on it..

If you want something as large as phpcow, I don't think wordpress will cut it. Wordpress is merely nothing more than a blog platform that can be hacked and tweaked to work like a cms. Hacking / tweaking doesn't cut it for me. Wordpress is great... ...as a blog. It's only mediocre as anything else.

I'd recommend Drupal, but there's a really annoying learning curve, and it's mandatory to install third party modules. That's a turnoff for me, since I like to do my own markup and css.. I have to unset all the module css, and then redo it to my own liking. Takes for EVER!

I recommend using Expression Engine. It has a free core version, but the commercial version is wonderful. It's the most flexible platform out there, that I have tried. Hands down. If you're just doing a news portal / magazine type site, I'm pretty sure you could easily acheive it with the free core version of EE. Look into it.

I'd stay far FAR away from Joomla. I couldn't stand that thing.