google alerts RSS feed on homepage feed module
You should only need Features and Views if you enable the Feeds News module. I think you can import from an RSS feed without that (by changing the Fetcher and Parser settings). However, IIRC, the Feeds News module does automatically create a View interface for you that manages all the feed items from a specific source so it can be handy.

Your setup sounds similar to one I implemented in D6, and it works well for the client. Once the items are imported, use Views to customize the output: a Views block can be configured to show the desired number of posts, titles as links, etc.

You may also want to implement VBO to manage the publishing of the feed items from your administrative page.