Suggestion for a tutorial (or new plugin)

It would be very convenient to have a quick way to create “call-outs” of text or photos, as in this article on SBNation – see the text call-out on the right, near the top of the page, and the call-out on the left near the bottom of the page. http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2014/8/28/6074601/nfl-penalties-increase-2014-illegal-contact

I know we can do this by cleverly adjusting the widths of Pootle text widgets and inserting a new row where a call-out occurs. But I’m wondering if that’s the best or only way to do it, short of creating a div with a CSS positioning spec for the call-out… As you can tell, I’m no CSS wiz.