Thinking of starting a news website? Even if you’re not planning to be the next New York Times, there’s plenty of space for creating your own news site based around your favorite topic, local area, or anything else.
It’s also easier than ever thanks to a free piece of software called WordPress. It makes starting a news website accessible – irrespective of your budget or technical skill level.
In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the whole process, broken down into four main steps. Let’s talk news!
How to start a WordPress news website (in 4 steps) 📰
In the following steps, you’ll learn the basics of starting a news website. When you finish reading (and implementing 😉), your only remaining task will be to write your first article. We’ll begin with the very basics, but feel free to skip ahead if you already have your domain and hosting set up.
Step #1: Choose a domain, select a web host, and install WordPress
The first step to starting a website of any kind is always the same. You’ll need both a domain name and a web host to power your site. Here’s what you need to keep in mind when choosing them…
Domain name 101
Your domain name is the name of your website address. It’s the part that comes before the TLD, the TLD being .com, .net, .org, or any of the other 1,600+ options available.
Needless to say, choosing the right domain name is very important since it’s going to represent your news organization’s online presence. So take your time and weigh your options. If you get stuck, a domain name generator can help you brainstorm ideas.
As for where to buy your domain, well, you have options.
Many hosting companies moonlight as domain registrars and vice versa so you can often take care of both in one place. On top of that, it’s popular nowadays for hosting packages to include a free domain name in the first year. So depending on who you end up hosting with, you may not even need to worry about paying for your domain in your initial contract period.
Having said that, the best long-term deal on domains is through Cloudflare Registrar because they sell domains at cost (i.e., no markup).
If you want to take advantage of any free domain deals but also desire the long-term pricing benefits offered by Cloudflare, then you’d need to transfer your domain by following some minor technical steps before it comes up for renewal. Afterwards, you’d also have to connect your domain to your hosting account (since each one would be with a separate company). In my opinion, the savings are worth the hassle though.
Web hosting 101
Not all web hosts are made equal. You should choose one that offers great performance and features to make your life easier. These include automated backups, top-notch security, SSL certificates, and more. In any case, shared hosting or a basic Virtual Private Server (VPS) should be more than enough to start you off. We have a whole lineup of thoroughly vetted WordPress hosts to point you in the right direction.
If you don’t wish to do extensive research and simply want a recommendation, then both Bluehost and Namecheap are good hosting options. You’ll save more money over the long term with Namecheap than Bluehost, but you can’t go wrong with either one.
Once you have both your domain and hosting secured, you’ll need to install WordPress so that it can power your news site. Though in the modern era, the installation is primarily handled by your hosting company. Many hosts even pre-install WordPress for you or let you trigger the process with a single click. In short, there’s nothing technical you have to worry about. Just sign up and move on to step two.
Step #2: Find a suitable WordPress news theme
After you install WordPress, you can use a “theme” to control how your news website looks. Here’s how to do it:
Look through available news themes
The official WordPress.org theme directory is a great place to browse free options. However, you don’t even have to go to the website if you’re already logged into your WordPress site. That’s because you can access the directory directly from inside the WordPress admin dashboard.
Use the lefthand side menu and tap on Appearance → Themes → Add Theme:
From inside the directory, click on the Feature Filter button at the top, then tick the News option under the Subject section. Tap Apply Filters and you’ll see themes designed to work well for news websites:
Alternatively, you can use the Search Themes window on the top right and type in “news.” This will show you all themes that have the word “news” in their name.
Regardless of which approach you take (try both!), when you find a theme you like, hover over it and click on Install, followed by Activate:
If you get stuck
Decision paralysis is a very real phenomenon and it can easily happen when trying to choose a WordPress theme. If you find yourself hitting a wall, consider using our flagship theme – Neve. It’s lightning fast, has great reviews, and is currently powering over 300,000 websites on the web. Both the free version and the Pro version come with dozens of pre-built starter sites, including ones specifically designed for news websites.
If you do end up installing it, you’ll be shown a prompt with a prominent blue button asking you to Explore Templates and Start Building Now! Click it. Then on the next screen you’ll be asked what kind of website you plan to build. Tap on News (duh!). This will bring you into template library with the News filter selected:
Feel free to look through the options, but if you want another timesaving hack, the aptly titled “News” is a straightforward choice. Once you click on the one you want, simply follow the rest of the setup process, which entails choosing your color scheme (you can always change it later), and adding optional features.
Though not required, ticking the Image Optimization and Caching boxes is a good idea. This holds true for most sites, but particularly for news sites because they tend to feature a lot of images:
Click Import Website to finish up the process.
Step #3: Set up plugins to add greater functionality
WordPress already includes many features you need to run a news website out of the box. However, by using various “plugins”, you can easily add any functionality you think is missing.
For example, you may benefit from using the WP News and Scrolling Widgets plugin. This tool adds a special section on your site for news articles and lets you display your articles in interesting ways:
You may also want to set up a plugin to add social media sharing icons to your news articles. This will let visitors share posts with their friends, which has an impact on traffic numbers and the chance of a viral post. The free Orbit Fox plugin makes that really easy:
Finally, if you want to automatically curate news content from various sources, an RSS import plugin makes it easy to automatically display the latest headlines or use RSS feeds in other ways. For example, you can use a plugin called Feedzy RSS Feeds to import RSS feed items to your news site:
With over 60,000+ free plugins, plus thousands of premium options, it’s very easy to add whatever features you want.
Step #4: Get up to speed on creating posts and pages within WordPress
So far, we’ve been laying the groundwork for your news website, visually speaking. However, now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty by publishing your first news article.
To do this, you’ll need to use the WordPress’ block editor (AKA Gutenberg). This editor features a modern, uncluttered interface that’s perfect for writing news articles. More importantly, formatting your text and adding multimedia files through the editor is easy:
Using the editor is fairly intuitive. However, if you need some guidance, we have a beginner’s guide to get you started.
Once you feel comfortable with it, you can get to work on your first piece and hit the Publish button when it’s ready!
Still on the fence about using WordPress for your news website? 🤔
WordPress is a free piece of software that helps you create any type of website. It’s actually the most popular way to make a website in existence, powering about 43.4% of all the websites on the internet.
But if you’re still not sure, here are a few reasons why WordPress is a great choice for starting a news website…
- It offers a powerful editor that’s easy to use – even for beginners.
- It’s optimized for text content, but you can also add images and other multimedia content easily.
- The platform automatically shows your latest posts at the top, which is ideal for a news site or an aggregator.
- You can use themes and plugins to customize your website in every imaginable way.
The bottom line is that with WordPress you’ll be able to write, format and edit top-notch news articles, and showcase them in style.
Do you have any questions about starting a news website with WordPress? Let’s talk about them in the comments section below!
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