ExpNews – Newspaper and Magazine WordPress Theme

Days without big news still need a reason to visit

A small online newspaper does not have an exclusive every morning. There are quiet days, two-person newsrooms and weekends with little to tell, and those are exactly the days when a regular reader finds out whether it is worth coming back tomorrow.

That is why what sits on the front page besides the articles matters. The weather, the stock market and a featured video give a reason to visit even if nobody has written anything new. They are data people check daily, and they do not depend on the pace of the newsroom.

ExpNews is a news and magazine WordPress theme that brings those pieces as widgets, along with the home pages and menus of a news outlet. The useful question when choosing it is which of those blocks your reader actually cares about.

Widgets for a newspaper front page

• SW Weather to display the weather.
• SW Stock Market to display stock market information.
• SW Video Box for a featured video box.
• SW Featured Slideshow for the featured slideshow.
• SW Latest Post for the latest posts.
• SW Twitter Slider Widget, a slider for Twitter.
• AccessPress Social Login Lite to sign in with social networks.

Layout, menus and home pages

• Several home pages with one-click demo installation.
• Compatible with WPBakery Page Builder and Slider Revolution.
• Dropdown menus and mega menus, useful when an outlet has many sections.
• All post formats in WordPress.
• Page templates such as About Us and Contact.
• Unlimited colors and more than 500 Google fonts.
• Custom CSS and JavaScript, plus Font Awesome icons.

Outlets in several languages

ExpNews is compatible with WPML and has a right-to-left layout, two things that matter if you publish in more than one language or in Arabic or Hebrew.

It also brings support for MailChimp for WordPress, styling for Contact Form 7 and for SEO plugins, and a field for the Analytics ID. It includes rich snippets and HTML5 for search visibility.

What an outlet will have to find elsewhere

Its features do not include a paywall, subscriptions or memberships. They also do not include an AMP version or a WooCommerce shop. If you plan to charge for reading, you will need additional pieces or a theme designed for that.

They also do not include an editorial workflow with newsroom roles, or sports data such as scoreboards or standings.

And the data widgets are, first of all, something to check. Review which source the weather and stock widgets take their information from, whether they ask for a service key, and whether the Twitter one still shows content on your install. An empty widget leaves a gap on the front page.

WPBakery, demo and widgets: where to begin

ExpNews comes ready for WPBakery Page Builder and Slider Revolution. In this order:

1. Install the theme and the plugin package, and import the home page you want in one click.
2. Adjust logo, colors, typography and the Analytics ID.
3. Create your sections and build them into the menu, with a mega menu if there are many.
4. Test each widget with real data and remove the ones your reader will not use.
5. Publish ten real articles and review the front page before announcing the site.

If your outlet charges or covers sports

Fabula provides for paid content, so it fits better if your plan is to charge for part of what you publish.

For a sports outlet, The League is compatible with SportsPress and brings a custom scoreboard. And if you are looking for other news themes in the catalog, you can see Digiqole or Jannah.

Six answers for whoever runs an outlet

Does it include weather and stock widgets?

Yes, SW Weather and SW Stock Market are included. It is worth checking the source of their data on your install.

Does it work for a multilingual outlet?

It is compatible with WPML and has a right-to-left layout.

What are the pages edited with?

It is compatible with WPBakery Page Builder, and with Slider Revolution for image slideshows.

Can I charge for articles?

Its features do not include a paywall or subscriptions, so that would have to be added separately.

Does it have a mega menu?

Yes, with mega menu and dropdown menu styles.

Can I collect newsletter subscribers?

Yes, it has support for MailChimp for WordPress.