High traffic blogs often publish content regularly – at least once per day. To maximize on content production and produce a wide variety of content, such blogs often have multiple authors contributing posts. Unfortunately for those authors, they are often hidden from the readers, with nothing more than a name displayed on a post.
Displaying the name of the post author is default WordPress behavior, but there are WordPress themes designed with multiple author sites in mind that provide authors with further exposure through author bio boxes and author pages, for example.
This article will look at how WordPress can help to showcase authors on your multiple author blog, then highlight several WordPress themes that do a good job of featuring the authors without distracting from the content.
1. WP Fan Zone
The clean style of WP Fan Zone displays an author’s posts nicely.
WP Fan Zone started as a design for sports blogs, but it can be used for any subject matter. It has a magazine style with featured posts and a masonry layout.
Each post includes the author’s name at the top which links to a page listing all of their posts. Below each post, you’ll find an author box with a brief bio and an author profile picture. The author box can be customized with options available in the Customizer.
The theme is available for free from the WordPress repository, and the author provides a full demo site.
2. Accesspress Mag
Accesspress provides a custom styled author box below posts.
This powerful magazine theme has a clean and modern design. It features two homepage layouts and beautiful article pages.
Each post includes the author’s name at the top, linked to the page with all their posts. Additionally, Accesspress features a standard author box below each post, which has custom styling to match the theme.
The free version is available in the WordPress repository, and a pro version of the theme is available ($57), which provides access to additional layout options for the homepage and other pages of the site.
3. Gazette
Author bios are given greater prominence in the Gazette theme.
Gazette is a theme originally created for WordPress.com, where you can see a full demo. It has been made available in the WordPress repository so that self-hosted blogs can make use of its clean design. The homepage makes great use of featured images on both the highlighted posts and the regular content.
Each post has an author bio as with our previous themes, but Gazette gives it more prominence by placing it at the top of the side bar. This is a different approach that definitely improves the exposure for the author. Below the bio is a link to a page with all of the author’s posts.
4. ColorMag
A clean and simple author box provided by the ColorMag theme.
The final free theme on our list is the responsive ColorMag theme, which is available in the WordPress repository. The widgetized homepage includes a categorized post layout common to magazine sites.
Each post on the index and archive pages includes the author’s name linked to a page with all their posts. At the bottom of each individual post page, below the content, there is an author box which includes an image and a short bio.
5. Grateful
Grateful is easy to read and provides index pages for each author.
The Grateful theme is incredibly enjoyable to read. The typography choices make it great for bloggers. Additionally, authors get their due with this theme with attractive author boxes and linked names that allow people to quickly view all posts by any author.
The more conventional features people tend to look for in quality WordPress themes are also there with Grateful: Responsive design, powerful theme options, advanced typography options, unlimited color options, well documented code, and more.
The Grateful theme is available through Themeforest for $44.
6. Extra from ElegantThemes
Extra brings the Divi Builder to Categories for amazing blog post index pages.
Take the power of the Divi Builder and combine it with a magazine theme and you get our Extra theme. The beautiful design includes not only homepage layouts but fully customizable categories. The featured post sliders on the homepage all include the author’s name, linked to their post listing, as do most of the post listings.
Each individual post has a beautiful author box below the content, which includes an image, a bio and social links. The Extra theme goes a step further and provides an authors page template where you can introduce your authors, show their images and bios along with a count of the number of posts they have contributed.
Like Divi, the Extra theme is available with the Elegant Themes membership.
7. Hub from WooThemes
Your readers cannot miss the prominent author profile.
Hub is a theme for content writers, and as such, authors are a big part of the concept of this theme. The distinctive minimalist style of Hub enables the content to be the focus.
Author profiles are displayed right beside the post content on the individual post pages. The default position is on the left, making the author profile the first thing most people will notice on the page. Hub’s demo makes use of the freely available Our Team plugin from WooThemes, to show the site’s writers on the homepage – a great way to showcase your authors.
The Hub theme is available by itself starting at $79 or as part of the WooThemes All Themes package ($399).
8. Metro Pro from StudioPress
The author box is displayed above their post listing in Metro Pro.
Metro is a modern magazine-style theme based on the popular Genesis framework. The responsive design is spacious and accommodates wide screens.
Like some of the other themes we have looked at, the author name is presented at the top of individual posts, and you’ll find an author box below the content. The author box can include an image along with the bio. The author’s name is linked to a page with all the posts written by that author. One nice feature is that an author box is displayed at the top of this page. This makes it easy for readers checking out the author to know more about them.
The Metro theme is available for $99.95, which includes the Genesis framework itself.
9. Convac
Authors take a featured role in the Convac theme.
Convac is a purpose-built multiple author blog theme available from Sketch Themes ($49). Its beautiful responsive design is highly customizable and comes with various layout options.
The demo site for the Convac theme immediately shows you a slider featuring the site’s authors, including their image, bio and social links – an excellent way to showcase your authors.
In the author’s post listing, Convac makes an interesting choice to not show the author’s name, but instead their avatar. This is also done at the top of individual post pages, but it is not linked to their post listing. The author box displayed at the bottom of the post does link to the author’s post listing as expected.
10. Multinews
The Multinews author page stands out with posts in a timeline layout.
Multinews is a premium magazine theme ($59) which aims to be a full magazine solution, including a flip page magazine, an advertising system, and user reviews. The design is very flexible, and using the Visual Composer plugin, you can create any layout you imagine.
As with the other themes on our list, the author’s name is listed on posts, linked to their post listing. The author box sits below the post content and includes an image, a bio and social links.
Where this theme stands out for showcasing authors is on the author post listing page. A large header image sits behind the author box at the top of the page, and the posts are listed in a very creative timeline layout.
11. Newsstand
The Newsstand comes with a customizable authors page.
Newsstand is a beautiful premium magazine theme ($49). The responsive design makes great use of images and is very flexible using the Customizer and the included page builder.
For showcasing authors, this theme includes the standard author name at the top of posts, and an author box below posts. Both link through to an author post listing page, and the latter includes an image, a bio and social links. Newsstand also comes with an authors page which you can create or modify using the included page builder.
12. SimpleMag
An authors shortcode makes creating an authors page easy in SimpleMag
Billed as a premium magazine theme for creative stuff ($59), SimpleMag is beautiful and flexible. The responsive design includes a drag-and-drop page builder for creating practically endless layout variations.
This theme takes a similar approach to the hub theme mentioned before, placing the author profile at the top on the left side of the post content. The author profile actually remains static as you scroll down the post, keeping it visible. The author page that lists all their posts takes a similar layout, with the author box on the left which remains static as you scroll through the posts on the right. This theme, like a few others, includes a page for the site’s authors, created using an authors shortcode.
Conclusion
Although blogging originally began as an individual pursuit, multiple author blogs have become very common, especially with high traffic blogs or magazine-style sites that need lots of content on a regular schedule.
In this article we have shared with you a selection of WordPress themes that work well to showcase multiple author blogs. If you have a multiple author blog or are planning to start one, you should be able to get going with one of these themes today and transform your site to give your authors more exposure.
Do you have a multiple author blog, and if so, do you have any tips for others? We would love to hear your ideas below – subscribe to the comments section below and get involved!
Article thumbnail image by Iconic Bestiary / shutterstock.com
Thanks for this list! Do you have any suggestions for plugins that do something similar?
I have recently changed over to a new theme and don’t have the time, energy or patience to try again! But I can’t find a plugin I’m happy with.
I’m currently using the standard WP contributor section but it doesn’t give me the option of creating author pages for my writer. It also doesn’t allow for customisation.
Thanks in advance!
Hello! I don’t have a solution for you, I’m afraid – I think Google will be your friend on this one! 🙂
Hey Tom. I’ve been Googling like mad for a couple of months without any luck. Thanks anyway.
I’ll try one that apparently brings a very original proposal, although I think I finally touch make some modifications to make it as I have him in mind. Thank you very much for the contribution. 🙂
verry good sugest,, may be I will try one..
Accesspress Mag looks great. I will give it a try. I have one question about comment moderation. If a user comments on a post, then wordpress sends email to the author of the post or admin?
The user will get an email if someone else leaves a comment on that post or responds to their previous comment. Helps to keep everyone in on the conversation as it develops.
Nice from Divi to use a shortcode to insert an author biography, but I think it is really strange that it does not allow you to pull he author details from the WordPress user who wrote the article. That information is already available in a central place in WordPress so why do I need to enter it all over again when I insert the shortcode?
Does Extra allow an administrator to post articles on behalf of different authors? Our authors submit articles to be posted by our site administrators and don’t actually post the articles themselves.
Hi Brandon, yes that is possible with WordPress in general. So long as each other authors has an account set up on your WP install you can manually change the author on a per post basis.
Divi and Extra are great themes, but for a theme designed for publishers like online news media, there’s one thing seriously overlooked with Extra: compatibility with Coauthors Plus.
Actually, my main complaint is with Automattic for not building multiple authors into the WordPress core. But beyond that, it would seem intuitive that publishers would need to have this capability. I would love to see this compatibility effected with Extra since this ability is a requirement for my website.
Jeremy Hammond
March 23, 2016
“there’s one thing seriously overlooked with Extra: compatibility with Coauthors Plus.”
Really? You’re complaining that a theme isn’t compatible with a plug-in that hasn’t been updated for more than 2 years?
The fact that it hasn’t been updated for so long doesn’t change in the least bit the fact that it’s an essential plugin for publishers. (Hence my main complaint bring that this hasn’t been worked into the WordPress core yet).
Does it not work with the plugin?
Does it not work with the plugin?
Hi,
I have created a website using Divi, and I have also created a contributor page which list brief biography of each contributing author. But I want more from Divi. Can I create an individual page for each author and then list the title of the article he has written?
I have asked this question in your support forum as well, but it looks like your support guys are too busy to respond. I posted the question at least 10 days ago. Hope this time I will be able to reach you.
You can create category to each author and then you can ad blog module and set that its only show blog post via certain category.