The themes are categorized a bit differently than what you may be used to. The line between magazine and newspaper themes is blurry, but we’ve tried to make that distinction. For our purposes, magazine themes look something like Smashing Magazine, whereas newspaper themes look like the Daily Telegraph, New York Times and so on.
Tribune (demo)
This has everything a newspaper theme needs. The designer has brought the classic news layout into the 21st century by giving it a modern touch and superb positioning of widgets. In the header are featured articles. A large area is reserved for the top story, spacious enough to catch the reader’s eye. The main content area is in two columns, where you can arrange categories and widgets. All custom widgets are included. Although I don’t like themes that allow you to drastically change the layout, you can turn this one into a blog theme.
Telegraph (demo)
This theme is inspired by the Daily Telegraph’s website. The designer has added a modern touch to the with the color palette and rounded corners. The home page can be customized in the back end, where you can choose which categories and posts to feature. You can also change the background color, manage advertisements and add widgets to sidebars. The theme comes with multiple custom widgets.
TerranTribune (demo)
This newspaper theme has a lot of cool elements. Its unique jQuery features for readers include the ability to manage categories and drag-and-drop functionality for the layout. Also, visitors can set the number of posts shown in each category. This theme is fully widgetized, with an amazing 32 positions, and comes with a control panel and custom widgets.
WP Newspaper (demo)
WP Newspaper is one of my personal favorites. It has the feel of a real broadsheet newspaper. With an elegant yet simple layout, it would make a great theme for your news website. It has four different category layouts (two column, media, magazine and default), and the advertisement module displays different ads for each category. WP Newspaper also supports FLV Video Player and jQuery Tools.
The Journal (demo)
This newspaper design is neat. It emphasizes clear typography and a clean grid structure, rather than layout imagery, making this theme a breeze to customize. Showcasing content is the priority here.
Deadline (demo)
Deadline is a powerful and professional premium newspaper theme. Whether your website is a personal blog or a full-scale content-heavy newspaper, Deadline has got you covered. You control the layout, and you can manage the advertising, pull in the latest tweets and show video. Readers can reach you through a contact form enhanced either with jQuery or Google reCaptcha.
PIM (demo)
PIM has flexible customization options, including for the home page widgets, skins and fonts. It also benefits from a quick-view feature; visitors can view incoming posts without having to refresh the page. There are also some jQuery-powered effects.
Arthemia (demo)
Arthemia gives your news website a colorful touch. You can assign a color to each news category without having to edit the templates. Nice custom widgets highlight the top story and featured articles, and the colourful categories come with short descriptions. The back end is not as advanced as in some other themes, but it’s more than enough for beginners.
Simple Reader (demo)
Simple Reader takes a different approach. It’s a kind of turn-key solution, a live sample that you can turn into a professional news theme. The template has a simple layout, and the nice jQuery pagination saves readers from page reloads. The theme comes with a grid and two-column page templates. You can also use the options panel to customize the analytics, style the layout, manage social networks and run advertisements.
SportsPress (demo)
SportsPress is designed for sports, but it can be used for other news websites. The elegant white and blue design is minimalist. The theme can be customized in back end, with an advanced options panel that lets you control the entire home page, with seven widget position and multiple custom widgets. As a bonus, you get an integrated jQuery script that adds a nice lightbox effect for pictures and videos.
Massive News (demo)
Massive News is a three-column layout theme for WordPress. You can switch the theme from the three to two columns; manage or disable the slider for featured posts and pages on the home page; and change the background color of content. The options panel includes Google Analytics integration, custom widgets for featured content, advertisements and related content, and much more.
Blognews (demo)
Blognews is a stylish multi-purpose theme, with a unique home page that is ideal for those who want a more professional feel to their website. With 12 styles to choose from and a control panel for advanced options, the theme is easy to customize.
Bulldog (demo)
If you run any form of news service, local newspaper, newsletter or even blog and you seek a professional way to present content, then Bulldog might be the solution for you.
Proximity (demo)
One of WordPress’ issues is duplicate content, especially on magazine and news websites. The code for this theme has been written in such a way as to completely avoid duplicate content without using categories. Proximity has an integrated options panel, one of the easiest and most customizable I have seen. Besides being able to control every aspect of the design, you can set up AdSense, feature videos and much more.
New Yorker (demo)
This was inspired by the New York Times’ website. Many people have been looking for a theme like this, so creating it was a great idea. The home page and sidebars are fully widgetized; you can use any of the seven custom-coded widgets (thumbnails, menus, comments, gravatars, Google Analytics and FeedBurner), along with all of the standard WordPress widgets.
Local (demo)
This theme has four-column layout, allowing you to better control the home page and to place advertisements almost anywhere. Plus, there are options for column sizes, typography, navigation and more.
