The masthead is the panel at the top of a newspaper where the publication announces itself — name, date, edition. It is the oldest piece of typographic real estate in journalism, and it is where a publication stakes its identity before a single story runs. Masthead the WordPress theme borrows that tradition: a purpose-built Full Site Editing theme for news organizations, community papers, and journalism projects that need a platform built around the article, not the widget.
This is for community newspapers moving from print to digital. For hyperlocal news blogs with a small team covering a large beat. For investigative journalism projects that need a professional home. For school and university publications that want a site reflecting the quality of their work. And for the solo journalist covering one beat for one community, who needs a platform that matches their focus without requiring a developer on retainer.
News sites have structural demands that general-purpose themes never quite meet. Article templates need to handle bylines cleanly, show publication dates and updated timestamps, apply section labels, estimate reading time. Front pages need to prioritize recency without becoming a wall of equal-weight cards. Archives need to be navigable by section, not just date. Masthead was designed around these requirements, not retrofitted to them.
Homepage and Architecture
The front page supports multiple editorial zones: a lead story with full headline treatment, a secondary row of section fronts, and a river of recent content below. Every zone is a native block pattern — editable in the Site Editor without code, adjustable to the rhythm and size of your publication. A weekly community paper runs a different front page than a daily hyperlocal; Masthead accommodates both.
Typography and Design
Typography is old-school in the best sense. The type system is built around legibility at news-reading pace — scanning, skimming, returning, reading in depth. Headline sizes scale with editorial weight, not with what looks impressive in a demo. The colour palette defaults to high contrast: ink, paper, and one strong accent for links and calls to action. These are not aesthetic choices. They are how news sites hold attention and earn trust over time.
Full Site Editing (No Cruft)
This is a Full Site Editing theme with no legacy code. No widget areas from 2012, no shortcode dependencies, no page builder lock-in. Every template — single article, category archive, author page, search results — lives in the Site Editor and is editable by a non-technical editor. The goal is a site your staff can run and update without a developer in the loop after initial setup.
What it does well
- Lead story + section fronts homepage — Editorial zones for the lead, secondary stories, and content river; each zone a native block pattern, adjustable to your publication rhythm
- Full article template — Byline, publication date, updated timestamp, section label, reading-time estimate, and related articles all handled cleanly
- Category archives with section identity — Each section can carry its own colour accent and header, navigable from the site masthead
- Author pages — Byline links lead to proper author archives with photo, bio, and recent articles
- Breaking news bar — Optional dismissible bar for urgent or developing stories, built as a native block pattern
- High-contrast type system — Legible at news-reading pace; headlines scale with editorial weight, body copy gets room to breathe
- WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility out of the box — Keyboard navigation throughout, skip links, visible focus states, semantic heading hierarchy, high-contrast colour pairs
- Zero plugin dependencies — No page builder, no shortcodes, no premium upsells; installs cleanly on any WordPress host
- Self-hosted fonts — System-stack first with optional self-hosted web fonts; no external API calls on page load
Technical Requirements
- WordPress 6.5+ — Full Site Editing support and block bindings API
- PHP 8.1+ — Modern PHP performance and security
- Any WordPress hosting — No WP Engine exclusivity, no special requirements
Part of the Colophon Collection
Masthead is one of 52 purpose-built WordPress FSE themes in the Colophon Collection, each designed for a specific publishing niche. All themes share the same accessible, FSE-native foundation. Same commitment to WCAG 2.2 AA compliance, keyboard navigation, self-hosted fonts, and zero external API calls. Built to be handed off to a newsroom and to stay standing when the developer moves on.
Preview
Download
Masthead is free and open source under the GPLv2 license. Download from GitHub or install from the WordPress.org theme directory.
License: GPL v2 or later · Requires WordPress 6.5+ and PHP 8.1+