BROADFIELD NEWS

Premium Editorial WordPress News Theme

Version 1.0  ·  By Keybrains  ·  GPL v2

Live Demo: https://news.keybrains.io   ·   Download

About Broadfield News

Broadfield News is a premium editorial WordPress theme built for the publishers who take their craft seriously. Inspired by the great broadsheet newspapers — the Financial Times, the Guardian, Le Monde — it brings typographic discipline, visual authority and editorial depth to the web.

Whether you are running a national news outlet, a niche industry publication, a city magazine or a solo editorial blog, Broadfield News gives you the visual credibility and editorial infrastructure to compete with the biggest names in digital publishing.

The theme ships ready to publish: one click installs 50+ sample articles across 13 categories, 8 author profiles, pre-configured menus, ticker items and all theme settings. Activate, import, and your site looks like this from day one.

Live Demo See the full theme in action at https://news.keybrains.io — all pages, all features, all content.

Homepage — The Full Broadsheet Experience

The homepage is a complete editorial composition. A full-width breaking news ticker feeds across the top. Below it, a hero grid of five articles dominates the viewport — the lead story occupies five-sevenths of the width with a cinematic image overlay; two side stories fill the right column. A four-card Don’t Miss grid follows, and the main content area then breaks into category sections with sidebar widgets.

Broadfield News homepage — hero grid, breaking ticker, section grids and sidebar

Three Distinct Header Styles

The masthead is the face of your publication. Broadfield News gives you three completely different header layouts, switchable instantly from the WordPress Customizer with a live preview — no page reload required.

Three header layout options selectable from Appearance → Customize → Header Style

Style 1 — Logo Right	Navigation links and search sit on the left. The logo anchors the right column. A strong directional layout with a modern editorial feel.
Style 2 — Logo Centre	The default broadsheet layout. Navigation on the left, logo centred, date and search on the right. Classic, authoritative, immediately recognisable as a serious news publication.
Style 3 — Logo Left	Logo sits on the left, all navigation and search on the right. Clean and contemporary — well-suited to brands with a strong logo or wordmark.

Key Features

Single Article Layout

Every article page is a complete editorial experience. A full-width cinematic hero image at 520px height. The headline in DM Serif Display at 42px. A standfirst / deck paragraph in italic serif. Author byline with avatar, date and reading time. A drop-cap first letter in Bebas Neue that anchors the opening of every piece.

The article body renders at 19px DM Serif Display with 1.78 line height — optimised for long-form reading. Inline pullquotes, `<blockquote>` elements, and a tag row at the close. An author bio box. A four-card related stories grid. Comment threading where enabled.

Single article — full-width hero, drop-cap, pullquote, author box and related stories

Category Archives

Each category page opens with a large editorial feature — a two-thirds-width hero with three stacked side stories filling the right column. Below it, a filter bar lets readers sort by Latest, Most Read, Analysis or Opinion. The article grid uses three columns at desktop, collapsing to two on tablet and one on mobile.

Category page — editorial hero, filter bar and three-column article grid

Author Profiles

Every author gets a rich profile page with a dark editorial banner, headshot, bio, and three statistics: articles published, years at the publication, and countries covered. Below the banner, a featured story panel and a paginated list of all the author’s work.

Author profile — dark editorial banner with statistics and article listing

Complete Feature List

Homepage	Breaking news ticker, 5-article hero grid, Don’t Miss grid, World/Design/Culture/Science/Lifestyle sections, sidebar with social panel and popular posts widget.
Header	Three switchable layouts (logo left / centre / right), custom logo upload with size control, tagline, edition/volume display, Customizer live preview.
Single Article	Drop-cap, standfirst, share bar, pullquote, author bio box, related stories, tag row, comment threading.
Category Archive	Editorial hero + three side stories, filter bar, three-column grid, sidebar.
Author Pages	Dark editorial banner, avatar, bio, article/year/country statistics, featured story, article listing.
Search	Dark hero search bar, keyword highlighting in results, filter pills, sidebar.
About Page	Full-bleed banner, stat strip, values grid, timeline, team grid, partner logos, dark quote section.
Contact Page	Contact banner with quick-contact tiles, working PHP form, department cards, office locations, FAQ accordion, newsletter strip.
Footer	Four-column layout, footer logo upload, about text, column headings, social icon links, copyright override, footer menu, Key Brains credit.
Mobile Navigation	Hamburger menu with animated open/close, dropdown with all categories, search bar, subscribe link.
Customizer	Header style, logo image/size/alignment, tagline, volume, ticker label, promo button text/URL, footer logo, footer about, column headings, copyright, social URLs, brand colours — all with live postMessage preview.
Demo Content	One-click import: 50+ articles, 13 categories, 8 authors, menus, ticker items, pages (About, Contact, Subscribe, Privacy), theme settings.
Responsive	Five breakpoints: 1100px, 768px, 600px, 480px, 380px. Mobile-first approach, hamburger nav, collapsing grids, clamp() fluid typography.
Performance	Google Fonts loaded asynchronously, images use WordPress registered sizes (1280×640 hero, 800×500 feature, 600×380 card, 300×200 thumb, 200×200 square). No jQuery dependency beyond admin.
Compatibility	WordPress 6.0+, PHP 8.0+, tested to WP 6.7. GPL v2 licensed. Clean, well-commented code.

Design System

Typography

Three typefaces form the complete editorial type system, all served from Google Fonts at no cost:

Bebas Neue	Display font. Used for the masthead logo, section headings, navigation strips, numbers and callout figures. The signature voice of the theme — commanding, compressed, unmistakably editorial.
DM Serif Display	Serif editorial font. Used for article headlines, hero overlays, pullquotes, article body copy and author names. Warm, authoritative, and designed for long-form reading.
DM Sans	Humanist sans-serif. Used for UI elements, captions, meta text, bylines, navigation and all interface copy. Highly legible at small sizes.

Colour System

Ink (#0D0D0D)	Near-black used for headings, the masthead, nav strip, footer and all primary dark elements.
Paper (#FAFAF8)	Warm off-white page background — easier on the eyes than pure white for long reading sessions.
Cream (#F2F0EA)	Secondary background used for pullquotes, value cards and hover states.
Rule (#D4CFC4)	Warm mid-grey used for dividers, borders and separating elements.
Accent Red (#C8102E)	Primary brand colour. Category badges, breaking news ticker, section underlines, drop caps. Customisable via Appearance → Customize.
Accent Gold (#B8963E)	Secondary brand colour. Section heading accents, subscribe link, social highlights. Customisable via Appearance → Customize.

Customizer Options

All settings are under Appearance → Customize → Broadfield News Settings. Changes show instantly in the live preview without a page reload.

The Footer section in the Customizer — all settings update live in the preview pane

Header Style

Choose between three masthead layouts (Logo Right, Logo Centre, Logo Left). The preview updates immediately so you can compare before saving.

Logo

Upload a custom logo image (PNG, SVG or WebP). Set its display width (80–400 px) and max-height (0–200 px) with sliders. Enable retina/2× mode for sharp rendering on high-DPI displays. Toggle the tagline rule below the logo. Choose logo alignment (left, centre, right) within its column.

General

Masthead Tagline, Volume/Edition display, Ticker Label, Promo Strip Text, Promo Button Label, and Promo Button URL. All update live.

Footer

Footer Logo Image (separate from the masthead logo), Footer Logo Width slider, Footer About Text (textarea), Column 2/3/4 Headings, and Copyright Text (with HTML support).

Social Media

Enter the full URL for each platform (Facebook, Twitter/X, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn). Leave any field blank to hide that platform everywhere — sidebar widget, footer icons and mobile nav.

Brand Colors

Accent Red and Accent Gold colour pickers. Changes apply instantly across the entire theme.

Technical Specifications

WordPress	Requires 6.0+, tested to 6.7
PHP	Requires 8.0+
Theme Slug	broadfield-news
Text Domain	broadfield-news
Author	Keybrains — https://keybrains.io
Theme URI	https://keybrains.io/products/news-theme/
License	GNU General Public License v2 or later
Nav Menus	5 registered locations: Primary, Topbar, Footer Navigation, Footer Bottom Bar Links, Section Tabs
Widget Areas	7: Main Sidebar, Article Sidebar, Category Sidebar, Footer Column 1–4
Image Sizes	5: herald-hero (1280×640), herald-feature (800×500), herald-card (600×380), herald-thumb (300×200), herald-square (200×200)
Custom CPT	herald_ticker — Ticker Items managed from the WP admin
Custom Tax	herald_section — Section taxonomy for posts
Demo Articles	50+ articles across 13 categories (World, Politics, Business, Culture, Science, Design, Lifestyle, Sport, Opinion, Travel, Food, Fashion, Tech)

Broadfield News  ·  A Keybrains Product

https://keybrains.io   ·   Live Demo   ·   Download