Performance & privacy

News. → Performance — all on by default, each can be switched off if a plugin needs it:

• Plugin files only where needed: WooCommerce and Contact Form 7 files load only on the shop, cart, checkout, account and Premium pages and on pages with a form. On every other page this also removes jQuery.
• Lean stylesheets: the theme CSS in one minified file per design style (kept in uploads/news-cache and rebuilt automatically when a file changes), WordPress block styles only for the blocks on the page, and styles that are not needed for the first paint loaded without blocking it.
• Preload the main picture: the front-page lead or the article photo is requested together with the page, so it appears sooner.
• Mega menus on demand: the stories and pictures of the mega menus are filled in the moment a reader moves to the menu bar, instead of being part of every page.

Critical CSS (off by default): writes the styles for the top of the front page, articles and listings into the page and loads the full stylesheet without blocking. It uses files made with the build tool for each design style and is skipped automatically when they do not match the current stylesheet.

For the best results also use a page cache (your host’s cache, or a plugin such as WP Super Cache or LiteSpeed Cache) and a CDN for images.

News. → Performance: remove emoji scripts and oEmbed discovery, defer scripts, lazy-load embeds, WebP images. With self-hosted fonts and the built-in newsletter list the theme makes no requests to third parties on its own. Use a page cache plugin (exclude Login, My account, Contact, cart and checkout). Ad rotation, wallpapers, the cart icon, podcast positions and frequency caps are handled in the browser, so they work with full-page caching.