In Django you could build the core of either of those two examples in an afternoon. I have done so just for practice. Yes, you won't use 90% of Django's potential. But the 10% you do leverage lets you build something like that very easily.

For a simple blog you would need to write only a few views and templates, and then I would use the the built-in admin system to manage the content. Same sort of situation for the simple news site.

I always get flamed for suggesting to not reinvent the wheel, but if you want to do build something like a quick news site, why not leverage all the pre-existing work you can. Technology is not your differentiating factor. /rant