Wordpress is designed for blogging, and although there are a lot of modifications for it that will turn it into a CMS, I wouldn't advise using them. They tend to have major issues with issues (from past experience).
If possible, your best bet is to write your own in PHP and MySQL, but if you don't have the knowledge necessary for this, Joomla would be your best bet. It's pretty user friendly and there are loads of good skins for it.
-Luke.
i tried out Joomla but i couldn't figure out how to edit the nav bar and publish articles.