WordPress News Blog Build

I’m setting up a WordPress-based blog dedicated to publishing timely news and long-form articles. The site needs to look professional, load quickly, and make it easy for readers to move between categories and individual stories. Core requirements • Design or customise a clean, responsive theme that suits a news portal • Configure and style WordPress’s native comment sections so readers can discuss each post easily (spam-protection plugins welcome) • Build an intuitive menu and category structure for articles, archives, and featured stories • Set up essential plugins for SEO, security, and performance without bloating the site • Deliver a ready-to-publish site with clear documentation on how I can add or edit content I already have hosting and a fresh WordPress install waiting; you’ll receive full admin access once we agree on the approach. If you’ve previously built editorial or magazine-style WordPress sites and can point me to live examples, that will help us move quickly. Acceptance criteria: the homepage and one sample article page match the approved design, comments work flawlessly on desktop and mobile, and Lighthouse scores stay in the green.