Evermag is a free, minimal WordPress magazine and newspaper theme for online magazines, local news, news portals and independent publishers: a ~200 KB zip, one small script, no jQuery and no Google Fonts.
Evermag
NewsMagazine
The default demo: a city newspaper with a lead story, top-story rails, section fronts and a newsletter band.
Breakroom
Work and careersMagazineNewsletter
A newsletter publication about work: a full-screen cover with one sentence and a signup, three featured stories, then a narrow Latest feed.
The Lantern
NewsMagazine
A national news site: a lead with two stacked stories and a rail on hairline rules, a centred signup box, Latest beside a numbered Most read.
Uplink
TechMagazine
A tech news site built from one repeated section: a caps title, a split lead with a serif excerpt, then a two-column list of stories.
Envoy
World newsMagazine
A world affairs magazine: a split lead and three cards, then one section shape per beat with a bold caps title, a lead, three rows and a More button.
The Annalist
HistoryMagazine
A history magazine set like a newspaper: a centred lead between two stacked stories and a Latest list, then four-up sections under black rules.
Hexfield
TechMagazine
A tech and games site: an overlay lead story, reviews, how-tos and a row of four news cards.
The Scorebook
SportsMagazine
A sports desk with a beat writer for every team: a Headlines rail, league section fronts and a daily email.
Loose Ball
SportsBlog
A writer-owned sports blog: cream paper, Title Case headlines, monospace bylines and a brick-red signup band.
Waybill
BusinessMagazine
A freight and logistics trade publication: named series as kickers, a dated rail and a deep-dive section.
Bellwether
BusinessNewsletter
A newsletter-first business newsroom: light serif headlines and a rail of named email briefings.
Greenlight
EntertainmentMagazine
An entertainment trade paper: a Top Story, a Most Popular rail, film, TV and music fronts and reviews.
The Cutaway
EntertainmentMagazine
A culture-criticism site: condensed headlines, a Latest News column, TV recaps and ranked lists.
Supper
FoodMagazine
A food news site: a boxed lead, a Latest rail, numbered city restaurant maps, critic reviews and a weekday email.
Plume
FashionMagazine
A fashion magazine: a black header with a tall serif wordmark, square crops, giant section headings and street style.
Backbeat
MusicMagazine
A music magazine: a huge red wordmark, slab caps headlines, red labels, starred album reviews and a red list panel.
Passage
TravelMagazine
A travel magazine: light serif headlines in navy and gold, readers’ awards, hotel reviews and four named newsletters.
Wheelbase
AutoMagazine
A car magazine: road tests and first drives with spec tables, blue caps kickers, a dark tested band and buying guides.
Bedside
HealthMagazine
A health and medicine newsroom: a dense three-column top, Most Read and newsletter rails, policy and opinion.
Rotunda
PoliticsMagazine
A state politics newsroom: a morning newsletter, poll cards, statehouse and campaign fronts with newsletter rails.
Halloran’s
FinanceMagazine
A markets weekly: a dark teal split hero, serif verdict headlines, a wealth report and an after-the-bell wrap.
Lattice
ScienceMagazine
A science magazine: a full-width lead, calm serif headlines, nature up close, a podcast tile and a dark features band.
Switchback
OutdoorMagazine
An outdoor magazine: a charcoal header with a yellow wordmark, gear tests, adventure long reads and fitness science.
Carpool
ParentingMagazine
A parenting magazine: a warm cream page with a clay accent, a Need to know rail beside the lead and a family newsletter band.
The Docket
LegalMagazine
A legal news site: a blue lead with a Latest rail, courts, firms and practice sections and a Docket Call newsletter band.
The Vestry
FaithMagazine
A faith and religion news magazine: a lead with a Trending rail, ethics and culture columns and a burgundy newsletter band.
Recess
EducationMagazine
A K-12 education newsroom: a three-column top with a Latest rail, a tinted money band and classroom voices.
The Ashgrove Daily
CampusMagazine
A student newspaper: a split lead with an Opinions and Latest rail, sports, and arts and life columns in maroon.
The Lot Line
Real estateMagazine
A real estate trade publication: a three-column top with headline rails, a mortgage rates box, brokerage and development fronts.
Gradient
AIMagazine
An AI news desk: a full-width lead, a numbered Top stories rail with a newsletter box, policy and research fronts and a dark Explainers band.
Haverbrook Commons
CommunityMagazine
A member-supported community newsroom: a top-stories list beside the lead, an amber member band and a what-happened-at-the-meeting section.
Homestead
Home and gardenMagazine
A home, DIY and garden magazine: a lead beside stacked cards, a row of how-to tiles, a Saturday List signup and what-it-costs lists.
Wagtail
PetsMagazine
A pets magazine: a Most read list beside the lead, a vet-reviewed trust strip, rescue and health sections and an Ask a Vet column.
Checkpoint
GamingMagazine
A gaming news site: a review lead with a Popular news list, a guides band, reviews, hardware and indie sections and a dark newsletter band.
Al-Madina (RTL)
RTL (Arabic)Magazine
An Arabic, right-to-left news magazine: Arabic fonts, a front page of section blocks and a sidebar.
No demos match that search. Try another word, or pick All.
Overview
Evermag is a clean, modern WordPress theme for publications: online and digital magazines, local news sites, school and community newspapers, news portals, independent publishers, editorial teams and blogs that publish every day. It’s free on WordPress.org, made by Owldraft, has no Pro version, and is maintained for the long term.
It’s built to stay light. The theme zip is about 200 KB. On the front end it loads one stylesheet (about 14 KB gzipped) and one small vanilla script (about 3 KB gzipped) for the menu, the header search and its instant autocomplete, and nothing from a third-party server: no jQuery, no Google Fonts, no external scripts, no trackers. Fonts are self-hosted through WordPress’s Font Library (WordPress 7.0+), with a system-font fallback on older versions.
A magazine needs more than a blog: a sidebar on some pages and not others, archives as a grid or a list, a search that answers while you type, and a homepage of lead stories and sections. Evermag handles the first three in Appearance → Customize, with a preview, and the free Editorial Blocks plugin builds the homepage from Hero, Post Grid, Post List and Post Group blocks. You write in the native WordPress block editor (Gutenberg), styled to match the front end. The markup is clean and semantic, with skip links and a menu that works from the keyboard, so pages are easy to read for people, screen readers, search engines and AI assistants alike.
Features
- Free, GPL v2 or later, listed in the WordPress.org theme directory, with no Pro version
- Small ~200 KB theme zip
- Tested up to WordPress 7.1; needs WordPress 6.5+ and PHP 7.4+, PHP 8 ready
- One stylesheet (~14 KB gzipped) and one small vanilla script (~3 KB gzipped), no jQuery, no page builder
- Self-hosted fonts via WordPress’s Font Library (WordPress 7.0+), no Google Fonts
- Separate heading, body & navigation fonts, with heading weight and letter case
- Colors for text, accent, background, meta text and text selection
- Header: optional search with instant, titles-only autocomplete that stays fast on large news sites, and a call-to-action button such as Subscribe
- Newsletter: a header Subscribe button, and a clean fit for Owldraft Newsletter, our free plugin that emails every new post to your subscribers
- Text or image logo, with its width and a height cap on phones
- Three menu locations: primary, social and footer
- Archive: grid (2, 3 or 4 columns) or list, thumbnail ratio & width, excerpt length; show or hide excerpt, categories, author, date, thumbnail and comment count
- Single post: subtitle, featured image, category, date, author box, tags and comments, each on or off
- Layout: right sidebar, left sidebar or full width for archives; reading width, full width or a sidebar for posts and pages, with a per-post override
- Footer: three widget areas, light or dark skin, your own copyright line
- Magazine homepage with the free Editorial Blocks plugin: Hero, Post Grid, Post List and Post Group (guide)
- Set up a site like the demo in a few minutes with the free Starter Sites plugin (guide)
- Accessibility: skip links, plus a menu that works from the keyboard
- Editor styles that match the front end, with wide and full-width media
- Responsive, from phones to wide screens
- RTL-ready for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Urdu news sites: header, menus, sidebar, post grid and list, comments, search and mobile menu all mirror, in the editor too
- Multilingual: WPML compatible (the copyright line and header button register for translation), works with Polylang, and translation-ready
Example sites
Here are some websites that use the Evermag theme:
FAQs
Is Evermag free?
Yes. Evermag is free and licensed under the GPL v2 or later, so you can use it on as many sites as you like, personal or commercial. Install it from Appearance → Themes → Add New Theme by searching for “Evermag”.
Is there a Pro version of Evermag?
No. Every feature is in the free theme: no Pro upgrade, no locked options, no paid demos. The homepage blocks plugin and the Starter Sites plugin are free too.
Is Evermag a block theme?
No. Evermag is a classic theme that fully supports the block editor: you write posts and pages with blocks, and you set up the design in Appearance → Customize.
How do I build a newspaper-style homepage?
Install the free Editorial Blocks plugin, create a page called Home, add its Hero, Post Grid, Post List and Post Group blocks, and set the page as your homepage under Settings → Reading. The homepage guide walks through it.
How do I make my site look like the demo?
Install the free Starter Sites plugin and import the Evermag demo: posts, pages, menus and settings. The install guide walks through it, and you can remove the demo content again in one click.
Is Evermag good for a local news site or a school newspaper?
Yes. That’s what it’s built for: categories become sections in the menu, the homepage blocks show the latest stories from each section, archives can be a grid or a list, and the instant search helps readers find older stories. It works just as well for a community paper, a trade publication or a magazine-style blog.
How fast is Evermag?
The theme adds one stylesheet (about 14 KB gzipped) and one small script (about 3 KB gzipped) to each page, and loads nothing from other servers. There’s no jQuery and no page builder, so your speed depends mostly on your images and plugins.
Does Evermag use Google Fonts?
No. Fonts are self-hosted through WordPress’s Font Library (WordPress 7.0+): install them under Appearance → Fonts and pick them in Customize → Typography. Older versions use the system font stack. The theme requests nothing from other servers.
Can I change the fonts and colors?
Yes. Customize → Typography sets separate heading, body and navigation fonts, plus heading weight and letter case. Customize → Style sets the text, accent, background, meta and selection colors, and the footer has a light or dark skin.
Can I add a newsletter signup form?
Yes. Point the header button at your signup page, and put your newsletter plugin’s form in a footer widget area or on any page. Any newsletter plugin works; Owldraft Newsletter is ours, free, and emails each new post to your subscribers.
Do I need to keep the theme credit in the footer?
No, you don’t have to — turn off Customize → Footer → Keep theme credit. But we’re thankful if you keep it ^^
Can I use it on WordPress.com?
Yes, but only on a WordPress.com plan that lets you install third-party themes and plugins (Creator or Entrepreneur). The Personal and Premium plans can’t install themes from WordPress.org.
Will you maintain/update it?
Yes. We will maintain it. This is a long-term project.
Changelog
Every released version is listed in the full changelog.
Updates & Support
Evermag is actively maintained. Updates ship through the official WordPress.org theme directory, so you’ll be notified inside your dashboard whenever a new version is available.
Need help? Start with the documentation, or post in the WordPress.org support forum.
Evermag WordPress Theme, © 2026 Owldraft, GPL v2 or later. Bundled resources and screenshot photos: credits.