Newspaper Header Not Showing: Which Template Is Overriding Yours

How a Newspaper header reaches the page

In Newspaper the header is not a theme setting. It is a tagDiv Composer header template, usually imported from the tagDiv Cloud Library and edited on the front end. tagDiv's header guide says the Website Manager, opened from the Manager icon inside Composer, is where you set one header template as global for the whole site, and that the Website Manager needs both tagDiv Composer and tagDiv Cloud Library active.

Global is only the default. A tagDiv staff member put the rule plainly in 2021: give the global header to the posts and pages you want to look normal, and assign a particular header where you want something different. A page, a post template or a category template can each set its own header, and that choice overrides the global one for everything that template draws. A header template also has four zones, which tagDiv names main menu, sticky main menu, mobile menu and sticky mobile menu. Edit one zone and the other three stay as they were.

So when a header is missing, the useful question is not where the header went. It is which template drew this page, and what header that template asked for.

Six places a Newspaper header goes missing

• On every page at once, usually right after an update or a plugin change.
• On single posts only, while pages and the homepage look right.
• On one category's posts, or on posts that belong to several categories.
• On phones only, where a different logo, menu or no header at all appears.
• On desktops, replaced by the phone layout, which is a cache problem wearing a header costume.
• Present but invisible, such as a white logo on a white bar after a template change.

Note which of these you see, on which URLs, logged out. The pattern does most of the diagnosis for you.

Causes in the order we check them

A template's own header outranks the global one

If the header is missing on posts or a category, open an affected post, edit its post template in Composer and look at the header that template uses. A staff member showed one owner in 2020 that the post template's header is set through the same Website Manager. One 2021 owner whose posts showed only the site title and a line of placeholder text on phones fixed it himself: he converted the header content on the post template and assigned the converted header to the Cloud Library template.

A Cloud Library header became a standard one

In a 2023 thread, after updating to 12.6, an owner's desktop logo turned white and effectively vanished. Staff found the site had used a Cloud Library header before and now had a standard header template, and told the owner to go back to the cloud templates and assign the old header again. Staff also pointed to the tagDiv Standard Pack plugin. Activating and updating tagDiv's plugins after a theme update is covered in Newspaper update problems; here, the check is whether your global header is still the template you built.

A category template that does not stick

Newspaper lets you set a post template per category in the Theme Panel. In 2022 a staff member acknowledged that this was a known issue on their investigation list when posts ignored it. The workaround an owner found was setting each post's primary category to the one that carries the template. If posts in several categories show the wrong header, check the primary category first.

Phones get a different header entirely

With the tagDiv Mobile Theme active, phones never see your Composer header. Its logo and main menu are set in the Theme Panel's Mobile Theme section, under its header settings, so Composer edits will not appear on a phone. Mobile pages are a third route: staff told a 2021 owner to assign a mobile page, edit it in Composer and convert the header template for it. Our Newspaper mobile menu not working page explains how to tell the three apart.

A cache serving yesterday's header, or the wrong device's

Changing the global header does not touch pages already in the cache. Worse, tagDiv's Mobile Theme guide says that with a cache plugin other than WP Super Cache you must enable the plugin's mobile cache option, or the Mobile Theme can appear on desktop too, header and all. Purge, then check both devices.

A zone told not to render

Version 12.6.3 added options to stop header zones rendering: the desktop zones on mobiles, and the mobile zones on desktop. That saves markup. Set the wrong way round, it leaves a device with an empty bar. Look at each zone's settings in Composer if one device shows nothing, and match the option names against your own version.

The 767-pixel line and the zones on either side

Newspaper's header switch is a width, not a device check. On tagDiv's public Newspaper Pro demo, which we loaded in October 2026, the stylesheet hides the desktop zone below 768 pixels and the mobile zone from 767 up. A tagDiv staff member gave the same phone breakpoint in 2025, with portrait tablets from 768 to 1018 pixels. That means an upright tablet gets the desktop zone. If you only ever edited the mobile zone, a tablet can show a header you have not looked at in years.

Test at four widths in Composer's viewports: phone, portrait tablet, the wider tablet band and desktop. A header that appears on the laptop and on the phone but not on the tablet is almost always a desktop zone that was designed only at full width.

Bringing the header back, one template at a time

1. 1

   Map where it is missing

   List three URLs where the header is missing and three where it shows: a page, a post and a category page each, on desktop and phone, logged out.

2. 2

   Confirm the tagDiv plugins

   Check that tagDiv Composer and tagDiv Cloud Library are active and current. Without them, header templates cannot render. If they are missing or out of step, use the update problems routine.

3. 3

   Check the global header

   Open Composer on any page, open the Website Manager and confirm which header template is set as global. If it is a standard template you never chose, reassign your Cloud Library header.

4. 4

   Check the template's override

   For each URL where the header is missing, open its post, page or category template in Composer and check which header it sets. Remove the override or assign the right header.

5. 5

   Check the primary category

   If one category's posts are affected, confirm those posts have that category as their primary category.

6. 6

   Check the phone route

   If phones are affected, decide whether they get the Mobile Theme, a mobile page or the responsive mobile zone, and fix the header in that place.

7. 7

   Purge and retest

   Clear the page cache, host cache and CDN. If the Mobile Theme is active, make sure your cache keeps a separate mobile copy, then retest your six URLs.

A header map that survives the next redesign

• Keep a one-page list of which header template each page, post template and category template uses. Ten minutes now saves an evening later.
• Prefer one global header and as few overrides as possible. Every override is another place for the header to go missing.
• After any theme update, check the global header in the Website Manager before checking anything else.
• Test headers at phone, portrait tablet and desktop widths after every edit, because each zone is designed separately.
• Pick one mobile route. A site using both the Mobile Theme and edited mobile zones has two headers to maintain.

The causes shared by every theme are in WordPress header not showing, and missing footers follow the same template logic in WordPress footer not showing. If a header shows but its styling is wrong, see Newspaper CSS not loading; if Composer itself will not open to fix any of this, start with tagDiv Composer not loading. Every other known fault is in the Newspaper repair hub.

Global, override, mobile page, Mobile Theme

Count the places a Newspaper site can decide what goes at the top of a page: the global header, a page's own header, a post template's header, a category template, a mobile page, four zones per template and a separate theme for phones. That flexibility is why publishers buy it. It is also why a header can disappear from one section for weeks before anyone notices.

In Newspaper, the most specific template wins, including the one you forgot you made.

A Next.js build has one header component, used by every page type, tested at every width before it deploys. Section-specific variations are written into that component, so they are visible in one place. It costs more to build and needs a developer for structural changes. Newspaper vs Next.js covers the trade for publishers, and Newspaper to Next.js shows how a site moves with every article URL kept. To keep Newspaper and get the headers in order, our theme troubleshooting team maps and fixes them on a fixed quote. Speed questions belong to the Newspaper speed guide, and the full set of fixes is in WordPress troubleshooting.