You can use unpublish.php cronjob script and configure settings for unpublishing process (object will be remove) in content.ini file or you can use hide.php cronjob script and hide object instead of removing (content.ini).
Basically your article class will have 2 attributes one with start date and one with unpublish date. So you can set range 1.08.06 to 24.08.06.
You or administrator need to configure system, cronjob, ini settings, and extend Article class with new attributes. Author will only set dates during normal publishing process that's all. Rest will be handle by eZ publish.
You'll have to configure the hide cronjob with INI settings. In content.ini, you will find:
[HideSettings]
# Example:
#
# RootNodeList[]
# RootNodeList[]=2
# HideDateAttributeList[]
# HideDateAttributeList[article]=hide_date
#
# List of root nodes where nodes can be hidden.
RootNodeList[]
# Class attribute map, describing which date/time fields to use.
# The systems uses the class identifier to determine which classes to hide in the cronjob.
HideDateAttributeList[]
The specified attributes need to have the date or datetime datatype.
