I will go into a bit more detail. The site will have the normal front end magazine style theme. But I want their to be a back end for members. This is the bit I am trying to fathom out.
The memebership area is subscription based. So for example a user can sign up for subscription A,B or C.
When they signed up they can create a profile & have one page which they can add articles to (a bit like having multi blog).
Now if they signed up for subscription A I want them to be able to visit other users pages that are on the same subscription so that they can read there articles. I also want to deny them access to people that are on other subscriptions.
The final bit would be to be able to private message each other.
That is about the crux of it.
I found a website called chickspeak and an article about it here
https://blazenewmedia.com/articles/chickspeak-a-wordpress-mu-based-social-network/
which seems to be close to what I am looking for.
Thanks
Mike