WordPress Plugin

The Grid Index RSS Importer

A WordPress plugin that pulls headlines from external RSS feeds into WordPress as posts. Designed to pair with The Grid Index theme but works as a standalone importer with any theme.

Version 1.0.74 WordPress 6.0+ Tested up to 6.9.4 PHP 7.4+ License GPL-2.0+
View on WordPress.org Download .zip GitHub

By Fifth Avenue Photographic — companion plugin to The Grid Index theme; works standalone with any theme.

47-feed curated catalog

Toggle on News, World, Tech, Business, and Science feeds with one click — from NYT and Reuters to TechCrunch, Bloomberg, and NASA.

Scheduled, granular fetches

Per-feed check intervals — 5min / 15min / 30min / hourly. Configurable post status: publish, draft, or pending.

Category mapping

Feeds map automatically to News, World, Tech, Business, or Science categories alongside a catch-all RSS category.

Safe & idempotent

Persistent GUID dedupe ledger — re-runs never create duplicates, even after posts are deleted. Built-in bulk merge tool.

Complete feature list

Everything in the box

Curated 47-feed catalog

News, World, Tech, Business, Science. Toggle individual publishers on or off; no manual URL entry required.

Per-feed check intervals

5 minutes / 15 minutes / 30 minutes / hourly. Set independently for each feed so you only fetch what you need.

Custom feeds

Paste any RSS URL on the Feeds tab. The plugin fetches it on the same schedule using a standard browser User-Agent.

Configurable post status

Imported posts can be auto-published, saved as drafts for review, or held as pending — choose per feed.

Featured image extraction

Pulls from feed enclosures, media:thumbnail, media:content, or the first inline content image — with a minimum-width filter to skip icons and trackers.

Granular post categories

Each feed maps to News, World, Tech, Business, or Science, plus a catch-all RSS category for easy archival queries.

Persistent GUID dedupe ledger

Every imported item is tracked by its feed GUID. Re-runs never create duplicates — even if you delete posts and re-import the same feed.

Duplicate detector + bulk merge

Find near-duplicates across feeds and merge them in bulk — useful when multiple publishers syndicate the same wire story.

Feed health monitoring

Flags feeds that fetch successfully but import nothing — silent failures that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Embedded knowledge base

15 FAQ entries built into the admin — covers uninstall data retention, red status dots, deduplication, and feed troubleshooting.

Source attribution meta

Each imported post stores its source URL and publisher as post meta so themes can render "Read at [Source]" CTAs and attribution chips.

Transient cache for fetches

Successful and failed fetches are cached locally via the standard SimplePie / WordPress transient cache to reduce redundant requests.

Pairs with The Grid Index theme

Better together — but works anywhere.

With The Grid Index theme active

  • Source attribution chip appears in the article hero
  • "Read at [Source]" CTA button rendered below the hero
  • Theme option to "Hide comments on imported RSS posts"

With any other theme

  • Imports as normal WordPress posts — fully theme-agnostic
  • Source meta available to your templates via get_post_meta()
  • Featured images, categories, and timestamps work out of the box

47 publishers, one click

The curated catalog

Toggle on any combination of these publisher feeds from the Catalog tab. Each publisher is governed by its own terms of service and privacy policy — see the WordPress.org listing for the full legal table.

News

  • The New York Times
  • BBC
  • The Guardian
  • NPR
  • Al Jazeera
  • Google News
  • USA Today
  • The Washington Post
  • ABC News (US)
  • CBS News
  • Politico
  • NBC News
  • The Hill
  • ProPublica
  • Time
  • Bloomberg (Politics & Tech)
  • LA Times

Tech

  • TechCrunch
  • The Verge
  • Ars Technica
  • Wired
  • Engadget
  • Hacker News
  • 9to5Mac
  • MIT Technology Review
  • ZDNet

Science

  • Science Daily
  • NASA

Business

  • Financial Times
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Fast Company
  • Forbes
  • Wall Street Journal
  • MarketWatch
  • CNBC

World

  • Deutsche Welle
  • France 24
  • CBC News (Canada)
  • ABC News (Australia)

AI / Vendor

  • OpenAI
  • Google AI Blog
  • Hugging Face

Listing a publisher does not imply endorsement or affiliation. Any RSS URL you paste manually is fetched on the same schedule using the same browser-style User-Agent.

Data handling

No outbound calls until you turn on a feed.

  • No feed is fetched until you explicitly enable it Either by toggling a feed on from the Catalog tab or pasting a custom RSS URL on the Feeds tab. Until then, the plugin makes no outbound requests.
  • No personal data about your site visitors is sent No analytics, no telemetry, no user-identifying information. The plugin does not phone home to the author or any service the author controls.
  • Outbound caching Successful and failed fetches are cached locally via the standard SimplePie / WordPress transient cache to reduce redundant requests. No fetched content is sent off your server.
  • What's actually in the request The feed URL you enabled, a standard browser-style User-Agent header, standard HTTP headers (Accept, Accept-Encoding), and your server's outbound IP. Nothing else.
  • Custom feeds are your responsibility If you paste your own RSS URL, ensure you have the right to import that source's content and review the source's terms.

Installation

  1. Install from the WordPress plugin directory: Plugins → Add New → search "TheGridIndex RSS Importer". (Or download the .zip manually.)
  2. Click Install Now → Activate on the plugin row.
  3. Open Settings → Grid Index RSS in WordPress admin.
  4. Toggle on the publishers you want from the Catalog tab, or paste a custom RSS URL on the Feeds tab.
  5. Set per-feed check intervals, post status (publish / draft / pending), and category mapping.
  6. Click Import Now to pull the first batch immediately, or wait for the schedule.

Read the full documentation on WordPress.org →

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Will the plugin keep my data if I uninstall it?
The plugin's options and feed registry are removed on uninstall. Imported posts remain in your WordPress database — they're standard posts, so deleting them is a normal WordPress action.
Why are some feeds showing red status dots?
A red dot means the plugin tried to fetch that feed and failed — usually a 404, a TLS handshake error, or the publisher temporarily blocking the request. Hover the dot for the specific error and check that publisher's status page.
Why is a feed green but importing nothing?
The fetch succeeded but every item was already in the dedupe ledger (GUID match), so nothing new was created. The plugin flags this on the Feeds tab so silent failures don't hide.
How does deduplication work?
Each imported item is stored in a persistent GUID ledger using the item's feed GUID (or, as fallback, its source URL). The ledger survives post deletions, so re-importing a feed after cleanup will not re-create deleted items.
Does the plugin require The Grid Index theme?
No — the plugin works standalone with any theme. The Grid Index theme adds visual integration (source chip, "Read at [Source]" CTA, comment-hiding option), but imported posts are normal WordPress posts that any theme can render.
Can I add a feed not in the catalog?
Yes. The Feeds tab accepts any RSS URL. It's fetched on the same schedule as catalog feeds using the same browser-style User-Agent. Custom feeds are your responsibility — review the source's terms before importing.

Ready to import?

Install from the WordPress plugin directory in one click — or download the .zip and upload it manually.

Get it on WordPress.org Contact support