King WordPress Viral Magazine Theme

Once readers publish, the front page is no longer only yours

In a magazine with its own newsroom, you decide what goes on top. Open the site to community submissions and that decision splits in two: votes make one part of it and the other stays with you. Getting posts is only part of the job: you also have to decide which parts of the page the audience hands out and which ones you hand out yourself.

King has pieces for both sides. The Hot page counts likes, views and comments, and a downvote button helps determine whether something is popular or not. At the other end are Editor's Choice and featured posts, the latter in sliders and widgets. It pays to design the front page with that boundary clear from day one.

Formats your community can submit

Submission happens on the public side of the site, without entering the WordPress dashboard, and authors can edit their posts and save them as drafts.

• News, videos and images, plus multi-page articles.
• Lists, polls and Trivia Quiz, with post types of their own.
• Links, a format that fetches the image, title and description from the submitted address.
• Music, with a playlist.
• NSFW content, which the theme supports.

Profiles, reputation and money inside the theme

The social side comes built in: profiles, user groups, badges, a leaderboard, verified users and following for people, categories and tags. Also reactions on posts and comments, live notifications, live search and night mode.

For revenue there are several routes:

• Its own membership, with no separate plugin.
• A credit system, alongside payment options through Stripe, PayPal and crypto.
• Advertising: several locations, sponsored posts, ad posts and an ad-free mode.
• Affiliate links, with their own format.

It also includes pages for generating images and videos with AI. Its models include Google Imagen 4, Seedream and Flux Pro, and Veo 3.1 arrives through the Gemini API.

Votes and reactions that live inside the theme

Having everything built in has a consequence. Likes, reactions and votes live inside the theme, and exporting that data is not among its features. Choosing King is a long-term decision, so it is worth trying it on a test install before opening registration.

• BuddyPress and BuddyBoss: King is not meant to run with them, because it embeds the same features on its own.
• Forums: forum integration is not among its features.
• Spam: open registration is handled with a plugin such as Akismet.
• Other plugins: if something breaks, disable everything King does not require to isolate the problem.

ACF Pro and the first settings

The theme options run on Advanced Custom Fields Pro, which is included. If you already have ACF installed, remove it and use the copy that comes with King. It is compatible with WooCommerce and uses Bootstrap 5.

1. Install and activate King, and follow the required plugins notice.
2. Install the import plugin the theme recommends and load a demo, such as KingTube, Kingflix or Magazine.
3. Choose a header template and a list template from those available.
4. Create your menu in WordPress and assign it to the left menu position.
5. If you use Rank Math or Yoast and their meta tags do not appear, enable the output under King, Layout, Meta Head.

If the newsroom or the social network matters more

If your site lives on a team that publishes a lot, JNews is laid out for a news outlet: AMP, a paywall and front-end article submission, with WPBakery, Elementor or Gutenberg. If groups, activity and messages come first, BuddyBoss Theme provides the visual layer of a community built on the BuddyBoss platform, and there the social engine is that platform.

Votes, payments and translation, in short answers

Do I need to buy separate plugins?

ACF Pro is the only required one and it is included. Akismet or a translation tool are optional.

What payment options does it support?

Stripe, PayPal and crypto, alongside its membership and credit systems.

Can it be translated?

Yes, it is translation ready. Loco Translate works for doing it from the dashboard, and there is an option for right-to-left writing.

Does the listen to content feature use AI?

It uses the browser's reading features.

Does it work for a video site?

It has demos such as KingTube and Kingflix, plus a list layout with video on hover.