I have a series of web sites for a franchise company. 80% of the information is the site is the same for every franchise. I want to have 1 database so I can easily update content for all the sites and keep each site's custom content separate.

What would it take to control the permissions so each site owner sees the main content plus thier site specific pages...but no private content from the other sites?

Making any sense?
Possible?

Have a look at simple-xoops.

Maybe that's the solution you need.