FlyingNews is a responsive WordPress magazine theme sold on ThemeForest by the developer jawtemplates, built around a Pinterest-style masonry grid and extended with a rating system, advertising slots and WooCommerce shop support. It suits publishers who want a dense, image-led editorial front page without assembling a stack of separate plugins, and it is priced at $26 with 1,716 sales to date. Buyers should note that the last vendor update landed in August 2020, which makes the FlyingNews blog-magazine package a legacy purchase rather than an actively maintained one.
What the FlyingNews blog-magazine theme actually delivers
The defining layout choice is the masonry grid, driven by the Isotope script. Rather than a fixed column of posts, the theme arranges articles into a staggered wall of cards that reflows as the viewport narrows. For a publication that leans on strong imagery, that arrangement puts far more headlines above the fold than a conventional blog index, and the vendor ships a set of page templates — blog, portfolio, contact and a 404 page — so the grid does not have to be rebuilt from scratch for each section of the site.
Editorial control is unusually granular for the price bracket. The blog module supports standard, video, gallery, quote and image post formats, and the theme exposes options for post ordering, items per page, sidebar placement on either side, and which metadata appears alongside each entry. Sidebars themselves are unlimited: custom widget areas can be created and assigned per page, post or category, which matters for a magazine that runs different furniture on its news and reviews sections. Colour handling follows the same logic, with per-category and per-page colour assignment layered on top of more than thirty preset patterns.
The rating and review system is the most distinctive non-standard feature. Reviewers can define an unlimited number of evaluation criteria, choose between star and percentage displays, place the rating box at the top or bottom of a post, and decide whether site visitors are allowed to submit their own scores. That effectively converts a blog into a review catalogue, which is a meaningfully different product from a theme that only styles text.
Advertising is treated as a first-class concern. The theme ships preset banner positions with the option to inject ads between posts in the loop, so a publisher monetising directly rather than through an ad network has somewhere to put inventory without editing templates. WooCommerce integration adds product listings and an ad slot between products, and the menu system accepts text, HTML, posts or shortcodes in individual menu items — handy for inserting a promotional block or a call-out link into the navigation bar.
On the technical side, the theme is retina-ready without extra plugins, ships with translation files (.mo and .po), is WPML compatible, includes microdata markup and related posts, and provides a one-click demo import that pulls in both content and theme settings. A layered PSD file is bundled, and the theme options can be backed up and restored. The vendor states compatibility back to WordPress 3.4, which says more about the theme’s age than about its current readiness.
Where FlyingNews fits, and where it does not
The strongest fit is an established content site that already has an audience and wants a visual refresh without migrating platforms. A film, gaming or gadget publication with a large back catalogue of images benefits most from the masonry grid, and the built-in rating criteria give review-driven sites a scoring system they would otherwise install separately. Small agencies building a portfolio-plus-blog site for a client can use the portfolio templates and filterable categories alongside the editorial layout, and direct-monetisation publishers get the ad positions they need out of the box.
WooCommerce shops selling a modest catalogue alongside editorial content are a reasonable secondary fit, since the theme treats store pages as part of the same design system rather than a bolted-on afterthought.
It is the wrong choice for anyone building a new site on a current WordPress release who expects ongoing compatibility work. The vendor’s most recent update was in August 2020, and the changelog shows the last substantive feature work in 2017. Projects that depend on the block editor, modern PHP versions, or a page builder such as Elementor or Gutenberg-based block themes will find the theme’s option-panel approach dated. Sites with strict accessibility or Core Web Vitals requirements should also look elsewhere: a masonry layout that repositions elements with JavaScript carries inherent layout-shift and keyboard-navigation costs, and the vendor does not publish performance data.
Strengths and limitations of the FlyingNews blog-magazine theme
Strengths
- The masonry grid and Isotope filtering produce a genuinely distinctive front page that reads as a magazine rather than a blog roll.
- The review system is configurable in ways most themes at this price are not: unlimited criteria, star or percentage output, definable placement, and an on/off switch for visitor ratings.
- Advertising positions are built in, including slots between posts in the loop and between WooCommerce products.
- Unlimited sidebars with per-section assignment give real layout flexibility across a multi-section publication.
- One-click demo import, bundled PSD, backup and restore for theme options, and translation files reduce setup friction.
- 1,716 sales on ThemeForest indicate a reasonably large installed base, which improves the odds of finding answers to common problems in forums.
Limitations
- The last update was August 2020. Compatibility with recent WordPress and WooCommerce releases is not documented by the vendor, and the changelog’s most recent entries are years old.
- The theme is built around its own admin panel rather than the block editor, so content creation workflows will feel unfamiliar to anyone used to modern WordPress editing.
- Masonry grids implemented with JavaScript can cause visible reflow on slower connections and complicate keyboard navigation; the vendor does not address either point.
- Cross-browser testing listed in the source material stops at Internet Explorer 10, which indicates the age of the underlying front-end code.
- No stated support for modern PHP versions, and no published performance or accessibility benchmarks.
- WooCommerce support was last confirmed against version 3, several major releases behind current WooCommerce.
How it compares with other magazine themes
Magazine themes generally split into two camps. One group is built on a page builder or the block editor, offering drag-and-drop layout control and a steady stream of compatibility updates; the other, which includes FlyingNews, uses a bespoke options panel to configure a fixed set of templates. The builder-based approach wins on longevity and on flexibility for unusual layouts. The options-panel approach wins on setup speed and on the coherence of the default design, because every template was drawn by the same hand rather than assembled from generic blocks.
Against the broader category, FlyingNews competes on three things: the density of its masonry grid, the depth of its review scoring system, and its built-in ad management. Many alternatives in the same price range offer one of those. Fewer offer all three without additional plugins. Where it loses ground is maintenance — a theme last touched in 2020 is competing against themes updated monthly, and that gap widens every year. Buyers weighing the two should treat the $26 price as the cost of the design and features, not as a subscription to ongoing development, because the vendor is not currently providing one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is FlyingNews compatible with the latest version of WordPress?
The vendor does not state current compatibility. The theme’s last update was August 2020, and the changelog’s final entries reference WordPress 4.4 and WooCommerce 3. It may still function on recent releases, but that is untested and unsupported by the developer, so buyers should verify on a staging site before committing a live publication to it.
Does FlyingNews include a review and rating system?
Yes, and it is one of the theme’s more developed features. Reviewers can define an unlimited number of scoring criteria, display results as stars or percentages, choose whether the rating box appears above or below the content, and control whether visitors are permitted to submit their own ratings. That makes it viable for review-driven publications rather than just standard blogging.
Can FlyingNews be used to run an online shop?
It supports WooCommerce, and the vendor’s changelog confirms compatibility with WooCommerce 3, including ad slots placed between products. Because that confirmation dates from 2017, a store running a current WooCommerce release would need to test checkout, product templates and cart pages carefully before relying on the theme for commercial transactions.
How much does FlyingNews cost and how many people have bought it?
It is listed at $26 on ThemeForest and has recorded 1,716 sales. That is a moderate figure for the marketplace, suggesting a real but not enormous user base. The price covers the theme files, demo content, documentation and a layered PSD; it does not imply any commitment from the developer to future updates.
Verdict on the FlyingNews blog-magazine theme
FlyingNews remains a capable design for image-heavy editorial sites, and its combination of masonry layout, configurable review scoring and built-in ad positions is difficult to match at $26. Publishers who want that specific look and are comfortable running a theme that no longer receives updates will find it does the job. It is not a sensible choice for new builds on current WordPress, for stores depending on recent WooCommerce, or for anyone who needs documented compatibility and active support. The FlyingNews blog-magazine package is best understood as a finished design asset rather than a maintained platform, and it should be bought on those terms.
