password protection

I haven’t seen anything posted about this, or even similar to this or so I’m hoping…if there is already a post about this please direct to it for I can’t find it.
K, here’s my problem. I am wanting to use wp (because I’m familiar and happy with it) for an online ezine that I am planning to open to the world within the next month. I have no idea how to do this with wp, and my css and php knowledge if VERY limited. I have put a webpage up in html that shows what I want to do, you can find it here.
https://members.shaw.ca/lunara/index2.html
What I’m looking for is a way to place the categories along the top of the site under the logo…have recent posts (articles) with only the titles along with the category it can be found in with the date beside that showing in the left column. In the middle column I want to put the posts (articles) that myself and others will contribute to the ezine. In the right column I want to have the top showing word of the month/day/week (and be able to change this when need be), and below this place to have ads for advertisers, that will change time to time. So basically everything except the logo will be changing constantly and on a regular basis.
There must be a way to do this, but I have no idea how to go about it with the limited knowledge I have. If anyone is willing to write the code up for me I will give them free ad space for life (very first space, and family orientated content only), and give them credit for the code (of course).
All help much appreciated!