When I was asked to do the front end for the new site, and asked to keep the old articles in tact, I knew it was practically impossible with the way Article manager was set up.
I'd have to go back through and read every single article, put it in a "X writer" folder, and then offload them onto my computer. Following that, it looked like I would have to resubmit every article otherwise, with the new front site. That just wasn't going to happen.
My suggestion has always been to blow away the old articles, and start fresh. Like it's been said, it's much easier to start with new legs than to make a cripple walk.
I'm open to re-doing the front site, but archiving and saving all of the old articles is practically impossible. Also, if something like this IS going to go down, I have to wait to start on it until the summer, since I'm back in school now.
-Josh