DEV3 Gazette – Magazine & News WordPress Theme for Elementor & WooCommerce

DEV3 Gazette is a WordPress theme for newspapers, magazines, newsrooms and serious blogs. It looks like a modern broadsheet: a classic nameplate with the date and edition line, Fraunces display headlines over Newsreader body copy, hairline rules and a strict grid, in a newsprint palette with a true dark mode. Motion is tuned for reading, and there is one small 3D accent: a spinning newsprint globe beside the nameplate.

There is no public live demo. Watch the video tour at the top of this page, or step through the screenshots at desktop, tablet and phone sizes.

A front page that works like a newsroom

• A masthead with the date, a volume label, an edition line and a motto, a top bar with quick links and a dark mode switch, and a sticky section bar.
• A breaking-news ticker with "2 hours ago" stamps: the latest stories or only stories with a tag such as breaking, on every page, the front page only, or off.
• A live banner that links to your live blog.
• A lead-story mosaic fed by sticky posts, beside a numbered most read list ranked by real views (one per reader session, bots ignored).
• Section blocks with coloured section headers and sub-section links, in split, trio, grid or lead layouts. "Skip posts already shown" keeps stories from repeating down the page.
• A markets strip (badged sample data), a watch & listen band with video explainers and podcast episodes, opinion columnists with their latest column, a subscription appeal and the newsletter band.

Live blogs

• Set any post's template to Live blog and add a Live update pattern for each update: a time, a headline and text.
• The theme adds a pulsing LIVE badge, "14 min ago" stamps, a key updates filter, a latest-updates rail with anchors and LiveBlogPosting structured data.

Articles built for reading

• The excerpt becomes the standfirst, and a label (Analysis, Explainer, Review, Opinion) sits over the headline.
• A byline with role, updated time, reading time and read count, a reading progress bar, a text-size button and share links for X, Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, email and copy link (plain links, no third-party scripts).
• An automatic drop cap, pull quotes, key-points and fact boxes, image captions with credits, galleries with a lightbox, an author box, related stories and comments.
• Long reads with three or more H2 headings get a numbered contents list in the left rail.
• An ad slot and a newsletter card are inserted after paragraphs 4 and 9 of longer stories (or turn them off).

Sections, authors, search and video

• Section archives with a big title, description, story count, last update, sub-section chips and a section image, then a lead row and a story river with a Load more button.
• Author pages with role, beat, biography, social links and every story by the writer. Authors get a local photo or a drawn monogram, so no Gravatar requests are made.
• Search with a result count and section filters, and a 404 page with today's most read.
• Video and Audio post formats for self-hosted explainers and podcast episodes, with the featured image as the poster.

Dark mode

• Choose light, dark or the reader's system setting as the default, and show or hide the switch. The reader's choice is remembered in their browser.
• Every page has a true dark palette, and the 3D globe re-inks itself to match. Both modes are designed for WCAG AA contrast.

Subscriptions, newsletters and ads

• A Subscribe page with plans behind a monthly / yearly billing toggle that add WooCommerce products to the basket, a comparison table and an FAQ. Subscriptions are sold as one-off products for the period; add a subscriptions extension for automatic renewals.
• A shop for gift subscriptions, print editions and merch, with a slide-out basket, quick view and colour swatches.
• A Newsletters page with signup cards that store subscribers on the site, post to Mailchimp or Brevo, or use a form shortcode.
• Ad slots in standard IAB sizes with per-device visibility: clearly labelled placeholders until you add an image and link or an ad-plugin shortcode. The Advertise page has audience counters, slot previews and a rate card.
• About & masthead, Contact & tips pages, all editable in Elementor.

Motion, with one 3D accent

• Quiet reveals, image zooms on hover, a drawn section rule and page transitions. Every Elementor widget and container gets an Advanced → DEV3 Motion panel.
• The 3D Scene widget (preset Gazette · newsprint globe badge) has half-tone continents, a red meridian band, an orbit ring and optional pulsing bureau pins, with controls for accent, ink and paper colours, pins, ring, "turn to a bureau", spin and scroll turn. It loads only when visible, pauses offscreen and becomes a still image under reduced motion or without WebGL.

Edit everything

• Every demo page is built with the free Elementor plugin and DEV3 widgets: News Ticker, Post Hero Grid, Post List, Section Header, Opinion Columnists, Video & Podcast Strip, Newsletter Signup, Ad Slot, Pricing, Comparison, FAQ, Team, Counter and Request Form. Every widget has a block twin.
• The block editor gets 23 block patterns (live update, live blog starter, key points, fact box, pull quote, correction, by the numbers, timeline, interview Q&A, review verdict, tip line, data table and more) and block styles such as Pull quote, Standfirst, Editor's note and Big numbers.
• Customizer: colour mode and switch, ticker, globe, edition line, volume, motto, subscribe link, in-article slots, share, related stories, read counts, local avatars, colours, fonts (Fraunces, Inter and Newsreader, self-hosted), motion and footer. A child theme is included.

Performance, privacy and accessibility

• Fonts are self-hosted, and no CDN, Gravatar or social scripts are loaded. three.js loads only when the globe is on screen.
• Skip link, keyboard menus, visible focus and ARIA live regions. Reduced motion stops the ticker and reveals.
• NewsMediaOrganization, NewsArticle, OpinionNewsArticle and LiveBlogPosting structured data, skipped automatically when Yoast or Rank Math print their own. RTL styles and a .pot file.

What's in the download

• dev3-gazette.zip: the theme
• dev3-gazette-child.zip: the child theme
• dev3-theme-toolkit.zip: the DEV3 Theme Toolkit plugin (news widgets and blocks, view counter, reading bar, structured data, motion controls, WooCommerce extras, demo importer)
• dev3-gazette-demo-content.zip: the demo package, for reference
• Documentation/: the HTML guide

The one-click demo imports a fictional newspaper, The Gazette Daily: 38 stories across nine sections, 11 authors with bylines and bios, reader comments, a live blog, three video explainers, three podcast episodes, the about, contact, subscribe, newsletters and advertise pages and seven WooCommerce products. Story dates are set relative to the import time so the front page always looks fresh. Every illustration, video and audio bed is an original render made for the theme.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0 or newer (tested up to 6.8) and PHP 7.4 or newer
• The DEV3 Theme Toolkit plugin (included and required)
• Elementor (free) recommended; Elementor Pro optional
• WooCommerce for subscriptions and the shop

Support

Six months of support are included: installation, demo import and questions about the theme's features. Read how we built Gazette for the design decisions behind it.