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Upgrade your news site with one of these exceptional WordPress news plugins.
In the collection below, you’ll find plugins to improve your site in a variety of ways.
Add a news ticker, create stunning new post layouts,
Keep reading to see what these plugins can do for your online news organization.
You might also like our collections of news feed plugins and newsticker plugins.
WordPress news plugins
There are free, premium, and freemium plugins listed here. That said, even the premium plugins are very affordable and worthwhile considering how much they can do for your site.
Here are my top picks for the best news WordPress plugins.
1. Epic News Elements
Plugin Description
Epic News Elements is an extremely powerful plugin for converting any WordPress site into a gorgeous news website. Let me explain.
This news plugin comes with more than 70+ pre-designed elements including post grids, sliders, and post carousels. It integrates with the Elementor and WPBakery Page Builder plugins to make these elements available. For instance, if you are already using Elementor to create custom templates, Epic News Elements adds 70+ beautiful news elements to use with Elementor. That said, this premium plugin includes a shortcode generator in case you don’t want to use a page builder on your site.
Epic News Elements works will the new Gutenberg post editor and is compatible with most themes. You can simply add it to your site and design entirely new pages for your website. Honestly, it’s pretty amazing how much you can customize your site with this advanced plugin, and that’s why it’s getting rave reviews from customers on CodeCanyon.
2. Simple News
Plugin Description
Want an extremely simple solution to output a list of news articles? Go with the Simple News plugin.
This lightweight WordPress news plugin adds a new post type called, “News.” You can edit and publish news articles just like regular posts from your WP admin dashboard. Simple News adds a settings menu as well where you can customize how large the thumbnail images should display and set/unset the pre-written CSS for styling the news items.
To display the news article list on your site, you can use the widget or add shortcodes into posts/pages. Between these two options, you can include news items anywhere on your site. There aren’t really any style customization options included, but for a straightforward method to add news articles to a WordPress site, you can’t beat Simple News.
3. Live News
Plugin Description
Add a news ticker to your WordPress site with the Live News plugin. This premium plugin is the most flexible and customizable solution available for adding an animated news feed to your site.
Live News has brandable colors, font size controls, custom fonts, and options to select which pages the ticker should display on. The news articles will scroll automatically across the header or footer of your site once the ticker is enabled and you can set the speed of the scroll too.
Customization settings aside, the most important aspect of this plugin is how you source the articles. Live News lets you add stories manually or import them automatically from your WordPress posts, an RSS feed, or a Twitter account. These integrations provide tons of control over how you source your stories, and the automatic updates make the news ticker a low-maintenance addition to your news website.
4. XML Sitemap & Google News
Plugin Description
One of the best things you do for your news website is to get included in Google News. Inclusion in their service can get your content greater distribution and net you way more readers. Here’s how this plugin can help.
XML Sitemap & Google News will automatically create a Google News compliant sitemap for your site. Adding a sitemap helps Google bots crawl your content and find your newest posts. Better crawlability leads to better indexation and more pages in the Google search results. You can optionally include images and captions, change the publication name just for Google News, and ping both Google and Bing when you publish a new post.
While the free version is probably all you need, there is a premium upgrade available. The PRO version includes the option to include multiple post types in your sitemap, add keyword tags, include stock ticker tags, and maintain a log of every time your site pings Google about new content.
5. WP News & Scrolling Widgets
Plugin Description
Want to include lists of news articles within posts and pages on your site? You’ll love WP News & Scrolling Widgets.
This news plugin adds a custom post type to your site exclusively for publishing news items. You can then output the news articles on your site with the flexible shortcode system. Display articles with their titles, Featured Images, and excerpts in a single list, two-column grid, or three-column grid layout.
WP News & Scrolling Widgets is very easy to use and integrates seamlessly with most WordPress newspaper themes. While the free version is quite customizable, the premium plugin adds a massive number of new options. You can select from 50 news grid layouts, 45 slider designs, add news tickers to your site, and more.
Which news plugin is best?
Here’s a quick review of the plugins featured in this post.
Epic News Elements is an incredible plugin for taking your news website to the next level. You might also like the WP News & Scrolling Widgets plugin as a simpler alternative.
If you want a quick solution to list news stories on your site, check out Simple News.
Live News is the best option to add a news ticker to your site.
Add XML Sitemap and Google News to increase your search engine traffic and inclusion in Google News results.
