Over the past year, the premium WordPress themes market has really grown and all sorts of different themes have been released.  Probably the most popular market right now seems to be the magazine WordPress themes, making for a highly competitive niche.

One of the more recent entries into the market is Natty WP, who until now seems to have been pretty focused on building custom blogging themes.   Their newest theme, however, intends to compete in that magazine WordPress theme market and so far it looks pretty good!

Here is the list of features the author includes with the Tribune theme:

• Theme Admin Panel - Admin panel allows you to fully customize the theme, including adding banners, AdSense, change the logo and favicon, set the color of links and customize the category.
• 7 Advanced Color Schemes – Here you can find a huge variety of different color schemes for any taste. Just choose the one which suites you better!
• Infinite variations and looks – A special feature for those who want more! Using the template with a fully transparent body you can easily create an infinite number of different variations and looks by changing the background image.
• AJAX Modules – Specially designed modules make template rather elegant and functional.
• Easy Logo switching – Want to change the logo? You can easily do this through the admin panel selecting the right image. The theme includes Psd file with the logo, where you can change the title and add your logo image.
• Advanced news module – Block of additional news allows the user to select the necessary number of news to be displayed. Choosing 1, 3 or 5 stories for each block, we save these settings for it. Signing in next time the user sees as many news as they have chosen before.
• Color picker – Thanks to the built-in Color Picker, you can easily change the color of the links in your theme! Be creative, customize your site and make it unique.
• XHTML Valid – Tribune meets all standards and has been fully tested for errors, as it is very important for us to create a clear and semantic code.
• Cross-Browser Compatible – Fully compliant with W3C standards, Tribune theme together with WordPress offers perfect performance with the most popular browsers such as Firefox, IE, Safari.
• Easy AdSense setup - To display AdSense blocks you just need to enable the menu to display banners or AdSense.
• Optimized for WordPress 2.6 + version
• W3C XHTML 1.0 Transitional. W3C CSS Valid
  
• Fully compatible IE7, IE6, Safari 2+, Firefox 2+, Opera 9+
  
• CSS Based Design
  
• 24/7 support

Probably my feature is the AJAX the theme uses for the module.  Rather than the traditional dom tabs, you can “slide” between the tabs content.  It also uses AJAX to “drop down” individual categories (selected by each user), which is something I don’t remember seeing on any other themes.

As for the appearance, the Tribune theme has some additional unique qualities for a magazine WordPress theme which help it to stand out from the competition.  It actually comes with a completely transparent background which allows you to easily insert a background image of your choice, making your theme instantly unique.

Here is a breakdown of the Tribune theme’s homepage (with the transparent layout):

And here is a screen shot of the post page:

You can check out the live demo of the theme here to actually view how these impressive new features work.

Another great thing about the Tribune theme is the price!  Currently the Tribune theme is available with two licenses.  The Single-Use License is only $45.00, or you can get the Developer’s Pack for $150.00.

Here are some WordPress-related posts I’ve enjoyed recently and hope you will also find useful:

• 13 WordPress Plugins You Probably Don’t Use But Should – This is an interesting post that covers some nice WordPress plugins that most people aren’t aware of.
• 6 Tricks to Creating a Magazine WordPress theme – Jean-Baptiste Jung of Cats Who Code shares some tips for creating a magazine WordPress theme.  Because creating one of these is a lot different than building a standard WordPress theme, this is a good read if you plan on attempting to make your own magazine theme.
• What Makes a Perfect WordPress Theme? – Joost de Valk has written a terrific post about what makes a perfect WordPress theme.   Some of it is common sense stuff, but there is a few things people don’t always think about and it is a lot of information collected into one post.
• Interview with 4 Premium Theme Authors – Vandelay Design has published an interview with 4 premium theme companies, including iThemes and Woo Themes.   I think this is a good post for someone to read that is considering going into this market.   It talks about the support, tutorials, and other factors you need to consider before you start selling themes.

For close to a year now, the idea of a magazine WordPress theme has often been modeled after a magazine or news portal, which helps to avoid the blog feel and highlight the most recent posts in several different categories in a visually appealing way.   But does it always have to be that way?

Michael of Colorlabs Project has just released his Platformate theme, which provides many of the features you’d expect from a magazine theme but it also has a personal blog feel to it.   At the top of each page (including the homepage), you’ll find a featured section for Hot Discussions and Most Popular Posts, making it more ideal for a personal blog.

Some other features that come with Platformate:

• 5+ Theme Colors Included – 5+ color schemes, included in one single product. Moreover, you can customize colors to anything you like, based on your taste. Stand out with your own styling. No need to edit the stylesheet template.
  
• Theme Administration Panel – You’ve got no idea about PHP, (X)HTML, and CSS? No need to worry about all the complicated commands and manage everything from the theme administration panel.
• Auto-Thumbnail your Old Posts – Forget the time-consuming manual thumbnail generation, even the old-fashioned Post Custom Fields. Thumbnails across the theme will be assigned and generated automatically. Simply upload an image and add it to your post.
• Navigation Drop-down Menu – Show links to your blog pages and sub-pages in a fancy drop-down navigation menu, located at the top of your blog.
• Sidebar Widget – Easily drag-and-drop widgets and place any widgets on sidebar and footer section. Download WP available sidebar widgets and have it right away at your blog.
• Cross-Browser Compatible – Designed to meet the latest W3C standard compliant, renders perfectly in Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer. W3C CSS and XHTML valid.
  
• Analytics and Feedburner – Burn your feeds with Feedburner and manage your blog statistics using Google Analytics. Simply enter you Feedburner URL and Google Analytics ID in the theme administration panel.
• After-Sales Support and Upgrade – Don’t worry if you experience any problems during the installation process. Purchase packages include a free after-sales support. Contact us and we’ll get to help you. Updates and fixes will be sent regularly for free.

Here is a sample of how the homepage looks (you can choose one of 5 colors):

And here is a screen shot of a post page:

You can also check out the Platformate demo for a live demo of the theme.

If you’d like to pick up a copy of Platformate to use, you can currently purchase a single-use license for $50.00 or a developer’s license for $175.00.

[For a complete collection of the premium WordPress themes available, check out our Premium WordPress Themes Gallery]

Over the past year a number of quality premium WordPress themes have been made available to the WordPress community from a large number of great designers.   Of these premium themes, most have focused on Magazine WordPress themes, as that seems to be what people want to buy.

Yesterday I was excited to discover that another designer has thrown his hat in the ring.   This time we’ve got Michael Hutagalung’s new Arthemia magazine WordPress theme, which was built to be an advanced version of his popular free Arthemia theme.

First, here are Arthemia’s features:

• Theme Admin Panel
• Choose a color for each category
• Drop-down menu
• Automatic thumbnail generation
• Widgetized sidebar and footer
• Ad banner management
• Gravatar-styled comments
• WordPress v2.5+ compatible
• Cross-Browser Compatible

And of course here are some screen shots for you to enjoy:

Arthemia Premium Homepage

Arthemia Premium Post Pages

In looking at the Arthemia theme, one thing that really jumps out at me is that it truly looks like a online magazine’s homepage would.   Many of the magazine themes you see (both free and premium) are coded to function like a magazine theme, but they still have a “blog” look to them.  This one has a very professional look.  I also like the 728×90 ad block prominently displayed across the top for readers to see in a prominently displayed position.

If you’re interested in the premium version of Arthemia, you can check out the Arthemia WordPress theme demo and/or purchase a copy.  It is currently available at the following prices: Single License ($70.00), Five Licenses ($140.00), or the Developer’s Pack ($240.00).

If you’d prefer to view a complete selection of all of the premium WordPress themes available, check out our complete collection of the Premium WordPress Themes available.