Hi Mark,
If I'm understanding correctly, the only actual restriction you want is to have the Other Dept folks unable to see/use the articles created by the News folks which have been scheduled for activation.
Is that correct? Or am I missing some detail here?
If that's what you are trying to do, would it be possible to have the Other Dept folks use a separate AEM Author instance from the News folks?
Assuming the Author instances are synchronized via replication/reverse replication through the Publish instance, the articles you don't want the Other Dept folks to see wouldn't exist in their Author instance until after it was actually activated (per the schedule).
The only other piece here is really just to ensure that either (a) Other Dept folks can't access the New folks' Author instance or (b) set up the News folks' Author instance to require users to be part of a certain ACL group (or more than one) in order to read or edit content on the instance. (b) might be able to be done via a CUG instead of direct ACL groups, but I'm not sure whether that would make things easier or not.
Would that address your need?
Are there any other parameters or restrictions that should be taken into account to address your need?
- Carey