10+ Best Free WordPress News Magazine Themes 2023
Nowadays, a huge number of people rely on their smartphones to catch up with the news. According to research findings, this number is ever-increasing as more and more people are following the news on their laptops and tablets every day.
This trend is so commonplace now that online news is gradually replacing newspapers and magazines. If this goes on, which will most probably do, physical newspapers will become history.
But it’s not just that easy! Establishing and maintaining an organized trend is such a hard task. When you have an online newspaper, you should keep an organized strategy for the top stories, featured articles and latest/breaking news accordingly.
However, if you use free WordPress themes for the news, since there are themes for any business like car dealerships, restaurants, weddings, e-learning, etc, they will largely facilitate the potential effort you must dedicate to design and create a website.
Free WordPress themes which are specifically designed for online news and magazines are powerful tools for creating a splendid website. They are also available everywhere and you will not have difficulty finding one, but the hard thing to do is choosing a quality theme.
In case you're using Elementor page builder and you're seeking for the best Elementor themes in the market, you can check out our comprehensive article: 10 Best WordPress Elementor Themes
Best Free WordPress News Magazine Themes
In this article, we have provided you with a list of the best free WordPress themes for news and magazine websites to help you find a good theme for your website:
Deep
As a super-fast and customizable, multi-purpose theme, Deep has a demo specialized for magazines and news.
This demo is the perfect choice for a news magazine. With a breaking news section placed on the top and a somewhat minimalist design, Deep theme catches the eyes of anyone passing by. It is fully responsive, fast, and awesome on any device.
Customization is possible almost everywhere. You can do whatever you like in Deep. Aside from being highly SEO optimized, Deep works perfectly with the best page builder in the world, Elementor.
Deep Key Features
- More than 120 Pre-built Demos
- 27 Premium Plugins (Listed below)
- A Free Downloadable Version
- Ultra Responsive
- Advanced WooCommerce UI
- Demo Importer
- White Label Branding
- RTL Support
- Widgets Support
- BuddyPress Support
- Mega Menu Support
- Visual Builder Support
- Multi-Language Support
- BuddyBoss Support (Coming Soon)
Deep Pros
- Outstanding Design
- 24/7 Online Support Chat
- Premium Support and auto updates for a full year
- WooCommerce-integrated
- Live Customizer
- Moderate Price
Deep Cons
- Still no bad reviews whatsoever.
Astra
Astra is a fast and responsive theme, in which you can customize your website with no coding skills.
Astra provides you with many choices for customizing your WordPress website using layouts, headers and typography options.
Astra uses Vanilla JavaScript instead of jQuery and it is super light weight with only 50 KB of resources, so it can load very fast. Here's also a full article on Astra free vs pro, so you can learn all the differences in features between the 2 versions.
Astra Key Features
- Pre-Built Websites
- Customize Without Code
- Made for Page Builders
- Layout Settings
- Header Options
- Colors & Typography
- WooCommerce ready
- Elementor ready
- Light weight
Astra Pros
- One of The Fastest Themes Based On The Test Results
- Free Demo Sites
- Flexible Mega Menu Feature
- Custom Layouts & Page Header Options
- WooCommerce Support
- LearnDash Support
Astra Free Cons
- Lacking Header Style Options (Only 3)
- Archive Page Styling Is Basic
- Blog Comment Styling Is Basic
- Blog Post Styling Is Basic
- Support Response Time Is Slow Compared to Other Themes
Portal
Portal is a simple and minimal WordPress magazine theme for websites and bloggers.
If you are planning to create an online portal featuring your professional blogs, events, news etc.
Portal theme is just what you need. Ultra-responsive, modern looking, and SEO friendly interface are innate to Portal.
Portal Key Features
- User-friendly WP multipurpose theme
- Customizable widgets
- Fully-responsive
- Powerful Admin Panel
- Grid layout
- Layout Creator with Drag & Drop
- Plugin Compatibility
- Boundless color schemes
- Translation ready
- SEO Optimized
- Made for technology blogging
- Premium Support
Portal Pros
- Site Performance
- Slider Gallery
- Various post formats: standard, video, audio, gallery, link
- Clean Source Code
- Featured Main Sliders
- Featured Sections
- Exclusive Mosaic Section
- Main Menu
- Footer Menu
- Extended Menu
Portal Cons
- Nothing serious has been reported recently.
Awaken
Awaken is an elegant free WordPress magazine theme which is also good for and news websites. With a responsive layout, Awaken looks perfect on all devices, whether smart phones, tablets, desktop, etc.
It has a tool called Customizer tool which comes very handy for users. It allows them to modify the theme instantaneously and design a distinctive website of your own.
Awaken Key Features
- Beautiful Design free WP theme
- Specially Built for Blog and Magazine
- Widget-integrated
- Fully-responsive
- Mobile ready
- Comment Section
- An Expert Post Section
- Video Integration
Awaken Pros
- YouTube video Widget
- 300×250 Ad Widget
- Two Block Posts Widget.
- Three Block Posts Widget
- Customizer Panel
Awaken Cons
- Settings reset in each update.
- Mentioning a couple of faults by the users.
Viral News
If you are looking for a free WordPress magazine theme with beautiful design and advanced features, Viral News is just what you need. It comes with 7 pre designed demo layouts that can be imported and installed on your WordPress website in a single click.
These demos are highly customizable and can be utilized for creating a beautiful magazine, newspaper, editorial, news portal or any other type of publishing website. But for the images, you will have to use a separate magazine photo editing software.
Viral News is a free WordPress theme containing many premium-like features to build your news magazine website with breeze.
Viral News Key Features
- Design your site i.e from Elementor page builder or native WordPress customizer
- 10+ pre-design block grid layouts for the customizer
- 20+ news module widgets for Elementor to allow you to build your website beyond imagination
- The theme is fully advertisement and provides you with various spaces to place ads on your news websites.
Viral News PROS
- Elementor Page Builder
- WPML Ready and Multilingual
- SEO Optimized
- Fully Customizable
- 100% Responsive Theme
Viral News CONS
- Need time to understand all the features
Gadgetry
A free WordPress theme for bloggers and magazine websites, Gadgetry is a retina ready and fully responsive theme compatible with all devices such as mobile phones, tablets or desktops.
Having Gadgetry means having lots and lots of customization possibilities on sliders, menus, colors, layouts, etc.
Gadgetry Key Features
- Free to use
- User-friendly UI
- Shortcodes Included
- SEO-optimized
- Sidebars
- Easy Changing Colors
- Contact form
Gadgetry Pros
- Dynamic sidebar widget creation
- Built-in SEO
- auto install
- jQuery image Lightbox
Gadgetry Cons
- It has been qualified low in home page and post & page heading SEO.
SuperMag
SuperMag is a powerful free WordPress magazine theme with tons of features, all at your service to help you design your WooCommerce website in the least time-consuming way possible. SuperMag enables you to customize the theme inside-out, from the footer and header to sidebar and color.
Everything you can think of. In addition to these, SuperMag has a breaking news option, along with integration of social media. Using all of these features, along with a tons of other, you create a complete magazine website.
SuperMag Key Features
- Specially designed for magazines
- Custom widgets
- An Option for Breaking News
- Suitable design for Mobiles
- Social Media Integration
- Custom CSS
- Translation Ready
- Custom sidebar
- Color flexibility
SuperMag Pros
- Magazine Style Design
- Social Media Friendly
- Boxed and Wide Layout
- Page Builder Support
- Built-in Breadcrumbs
- Custom Logo Upload Option
SuperMag Cons
- It has an average rate among the users considering the absence of some features.
First Mag
Looking for a minimalist theme? You want it to be modern-looking as well? You want it to be specialized for magazines? Here it is! First Mag is exactly the choice.
It has a customizer panel which enables you to instantaneously customize your design and have a live preview of it and it is the perfect choice for your small business.
Also, it is fully compatible with the WooCommerce plugin and WP Review Plugin. Along being SEO-friendly, it functions with a good speed and you can be sure your users will be happy with that.
First Mag Key Features
- Easy-to-use Interface
- Customizable Background
- Numerous Widgets
- Specialized for Magazines
- Left and Right Sidebar
- Translation Ready
First Mag Pros
- Elegant and Professional
- Powerful Features
- Slider Section
- org Integration
- Widget Locations
First Mag Cons
- Most of the features such as the google fonts, updates & support, custom CSS and jpeg image compression are only included in the pro version of the theme.
Hiero
Based on the presences of people these days, simple and minimalist websites find their markets more easily and have a more profitable one ahead of them. Nowadays complicated websites which have a lot of options and categories and stuff are somehow deemed as outdated.
If you are one of those people who look for clean and simple themes, Hiero is the perfect choice for you. As a wonderful and free WordPress magazine theme, it is fully responsive with countless features that provides you a complete, immaculate site for news or magazine.
Hiero Key Features
- Exeptional Design
- Specialized and optimized for news and reviews
- Custom widgets
- Practical options
- Color options
- Google fonts
- Responsive
- Commenting Section
Hiero Pros
- Fast Support
- Always Up to Date
- Live Customizer
- Translation Ready
Hiero Cons
- No bad reviews whatsoever
Clean Magazine
Clean Magazine is a fully responsive free WordPress theme. Each and every element of the theme has been carefully designed and developed. Whatever you see is fully customizable and this gives you the best user experience you can ever find in the web world. It offers a variety of theme options like modifying layout, styling, featured content, icons, menu etc. to let you design your website in a unique way.
Clean Magazine Key Features
- Sleek and Smooth
- Dropdown Menu
- Featured Thumbnails
- Custom Header/Logo Builder
- Advertisement Manager
- Featured Page Grid Content
- WordPress Standard Codes
Clean Magazine Pros
- Responsive Design
- Gravatar Ready
- Page Templates
- Custom Layout
- Custom Widget
- Header Highlight Content
- News Ticker Promotion Headline
- Featured Slider
- News Ticker
Clean Magazine Cons
- No serious issue has been reported by the users.
MH Magazine Lite
MH Magazine Lite is one of the most widely known WordPress themes for free. Aside from being a minimalist free WordPress news theme, it is especially built for online magazines and news websites.
It has so many powerful and practical widgets which come in handy for the users. In addition, it is fully responsive and is compatible with almost all devices, whether mobiles, laptops, etc.
MH Magazine Lite Key Features
- Specialized for a magazine theme
- Full of widgets
- Contact form 7
- FlexSlider
- Ultra responsive
- Options to modify color scheme
- Extra custom widgets
- Social buttons
- Extended layout options
MH Magazine Lite Pros
- News ticker
- Social buttons
- Typography options
- Widget areas
MH Magazine Lite Cons
- Lack installation or customization services
- A couple of reported issues regarding the updates
ColorMag
ColorMag is an easily manageable free WordPress news theme, suitable for the purpose of news and related stuff. With a clean and flat design, ColorMag has a wide range of layout options along with so many valuable segments. Alongside these, this theme has a big slider which is just what you need for displaying your latest news.
If you are in favor of a theme with a simple and clean design that has an easy to use interface, ColorMag is what you are looking for. By the way, keep in mind that anybody without any special coding knowledge can build a distinctive website in less than an hour.
ColorMag Key Features
- Easy-to-use interface
- Free of charge
- Plenty of Color Options
- Animated Slider
- Social Media Integration
- Flexible Page Layout Options
- Many Pre-installed fonts
ColorMag Pros
- Custom Widgets
- Social Options
- Customizable Site Design
- Option to customize header image and background image
- Sticky header menu
- Displaying related posts (by category or tag)
ColorMag Cons
- Some extra options such as font options, extra widgets, RTL support and footer editor are included in the pro version.
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Clean Magazine is a great free WordPress theme. Is it integrated with Mailerto? and also which Email Marketing Service is better in terms of coding?!
You should ask from their own technical support about it.
So this means with the help of Email Marketing Service we can stop buying physical newspapers just because we want to catch up with things happening in our nation?
I’m not really agreed with this, but that’s how the world is going.
I personally like the Deep theme. Specifically for its WooCommerce integrated UI. Its Live Customizer also attracted me. I’ll definitely put Deep free WordPress theme in my recommendation list.
Happy to hear that.
I really like the color mag in all the free WordPress magazine themes. It is easy to use user friendly and also suitable for news reading. I really appreciate the article
I hope you find our other blogs useful as well.
I use the Deep theme and it works smoothly with the Deep theme. In free WordPress magazine themes, I think Deep is one of the best but no one really know it. Can we use Mailerto to build projects? Also, in terms of code, which Email Marketing Service is superior?!!!
I think it’s better to ask this at webnus.net/support.
Astra is awesome, but you did not explain enough about them. I really like to know the features of these themes. Is this article trying to convey that Deep theme is the best of the WordPress magazine themes?
No that is not definitely our purpose. As you might know, we cannot write about all the details of each theme. This blog is just to give you a hint about what will suit you better in terms of what you need. Maybe it’s better to narrow down your list and then do a little research about each one.
Are all of these FREE magazine WordPress themes? I mean like how about the Premium versions? What else do they offer?!
This blog is focused on these themes’ free versions. In order to get more information about their premium features, you should visit their website.
Due to extreme increasing number of mobile users and changing dynamics the digital news services are getting more attraction to make things more exciting I would recommend the use of free WordPress news themes, they will largely facilitate you, moreover the best email marketing services currently is sendinblue because they offers many things free of cost
Can you please write another article about the premium WordPress magazine themes?
I will inform our theme to put this in their blog queue.
WordPress news magazine is an excellent idea but integrating it with email marketing is where I lack clarity
If you are doing this as your profession, I think it’s better to have a premium theme for it.
Customization is possible almost everywhere. You can whatever you think in Deep. U hope ‘Email marketing service’ is better in terms of coding?
We mean that our email marketing service is not something you will face difficulty with.
Email Marketing Service, is the best contemporary marketing system for anyone to adopte. There’s totally no controversies.
Happy to hear that.
Email Marketing Service is so vast now that it is gradually replacing newspapers and magazines in physical form and also which Email Marketing Service is better in terms of coding?!
We cannot suggest any, but we have official integration with Mailchimp for our plugin.
Can we create projects using the Mailerto? and also which Email Marketing Service is better in terms of coding?!
I think it’s better to ask this at webnus.net/support.
I utilized MailChimp for all of my email marketing services and I really enjoy it, but does anyone know whether it has a desktop software? By the way, thank you for the article.
I think it’s better to ask from their own technical support.