So coordinating editor should probably set the date/hour to be close to date of actual publication, and then mess with minutes to determine order on ToC?</del>
Don't worry about exactly which date and time When you usepublish an issue, just make sure they're in order. The the Issue Manager plugin will take care give you the option of setting sorting the articles it is about to publish. Move them into the order that you expect them to appear on the home page, the right dateclick "Publish".