Selecta … wow, what a stunning theme. Calls to mind a more edgy version of etsy … very indie vibe. And best of all, free. This is a theme for a wordpress run video blog or perhaps even a portfolio, if your work happens to be video/clips.

It’s unclear whether you can sub the videos for photos, but I’m marking this as a photo gallery theme in case you can make it work.

Developer: Obox Design

Features:

More Info | Demo

Michael Oeser aka DER PRiNZ, whose theme Branford Magazine was, as far as I could tell, one of the earliest and most popular free magazine-style Wordpress themes, is back with another free theme, this time called Wynton Magazine.

I’m digging the addition of the category-navigation sub bar, as well as the built-in advertising. The homepage very elegantly highlights the lead story, with three supporting stories. The bottom is similar to the robust footer concept where two rows of third-tier stories reside. All in all, a nice job, though I would have liked to see a bigger call out to RSS/subscribe/newsletters and a slightly bigger search box.

More Info | Live Demo

Nicely styled theme with a few neat features, like auto image resizing, and a homepage that manages to get a lot in, but keep it organized looking. Both page and category-based-navigation (drop down menu bar and the middle menu bar), as well as a robust footer.

More Info | Live Demo

Live Demo | More Info

The creators call this theme a “premium blog” and not “premium magazine” theme, but we’re including it here anyway as a robust blog or gallery/photo-heavy theme.

The focus on typeface (Helvetica / Georgia / Verdana / Courier used) and reliance on images is the main draw with this very clean and modern looking theme. It’s available in free and premium ($45); premium comes with all views, page templates, support as well as no branding.

Live Demo | More Info

Live Demo | More Info

Less a fixed theme and more a theme system, Shifter allows you to change your blog width, sidebar width and configuration. It comes prepacked with 15 skins and three HP styles — “Blog”, “Blog-Portal” and “Portal”.

More Info

Beautiful theme. Definitely in the design-y camp and probably less for those who are interested in a text-heavy site. But I see applications of this including a recipe site, an agency website, or perhaps a travel site — anything where a visual representation of the information would have more of an impact.

Unique features: LOVE the text and # of comments overlaid on images, simple and effective color scheme, and the list of categories with counts of posts elegantly implemented in the footer.

Live Demo | More Info

Free Wordpress theme with page-based navigation (dropdown menus) with a category-list in the right-hand sidebar. The HP is 3-column while article pages are 2-column. With built-in advertising.

Live Demo | More Info

One of the first magazine-style Wordpress themes that I came across, and judging from the comments, hugely popular. Maybe because it’s free, or maybe because it’s a great starting off point. Those of you looking for pre-built top-menu category-based navigation, (admittedly, a very specific thing), will have to look elsewhere. Mimbo’s top navigation menu is page-based; category-based-navigation is via the right-hand menu, which displays both categories and subcategories. Also no “most popular” (pages, comments etc) built in. You may also be interested in the paid theme, Mimbo Pro.

Live Demo | More Info