I like the idea, which is pretty much how most professional blogs function. Except
it's a bit at odds with the main problem, which is contributions. So I think a
compromise is to boil it down much more simply:
Authors can enter posts. "Draft" status means "I'm still working on
this." "Pending" means "an editor can look at this now."
Editors can move posts from "Pending" to "Published."
The end.