2 Email Newsletter Templates

We have a Gold & Precious Metal news website. We publish up to a dozen new articles (market analysis, commentary, etc..) every day of the week. Our current email newsletter performs fairly well but the design is dated and not flexible (more on this later). The newsletter is sent out 3x per week and lists the most recent 8-10 articles (title and blurb with a read more link). No images other than a spot at the top for a banner ad. We use Mailchimp. Newsletter Template Needs: -A fresh/modern new email newsletter design that follows the same basic structure of listing news articles (digest). -This includes making our logo and newsletter title masthead look more professional and appealing -Would like to be able to pick and choose which article is the lead story from those in the RSS feed. Right now, the newsletter is fully automated and simply chooses the most recent article that was posted and makes that the Subject line of the email. So, we try to hold the article we want to lead the newsletter (usually the one that has the best headline) and publish it last just before the newsletter goes out. Is there an easier way to do this? -The newsletter would show ~8 article titles and blurbs total -Social sharing icons: Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn -We would like a spot after the 2nd article where I have the option of putting a native ad that looks like the other articles (title and blurb) but is a sponsored ad. I'd like the option of easily inserting this when available. -We need two links, or attractive buttons, to drive traffic to two important pages on our site: our Gold Prices Page "See the Current Gold Price", and our Gold IRA Guide. We need your guidance as to where these should go in the template. Template 2 We will be introducing an additional on Sundays that will serve as a summary of what happened in the gold market. -The overall look and feel will be the same as the 1st template but will prominently show a gold price graph/chart. -Then an article title and blurb. -Followed by a native ad (same as above) -Then a Recommended Articles section where we list 3-4 article titles and blurbs of our choosing. For both newsletters, -Must look great on mobile and desktop, incorporating email design best practices -We also want the option to put a banner ad across the top of the newsletter just below the masthead.