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The only thing I'd suggest (if you prefer using news for tutorials--and why not?) is to install one of the other umpteen news modules and rename it "Tutorials". Then rename the block titles to match this.
Now you'll have "news" and "tutorials" listed as menu options and can have a "recent news" block and a "latest tutorials" block. Now it's no problem to have a "most popular tutorials" block, grant users the right to submit one and not the other etc, etc...
Of course you could do something similar just by setting up various topics in your news modules, but I'm guessing you'll like this way better.
Brian