Hi there! This is a very creative idea!
Things I like:
-The way you have your forum laid out like an actual newspaper website
-The Facebook link with statistics in your right tables
-Your right side tables
-Your titles are very clear and easy to read
-The background repeats nicely. This is one of the odd forums that I don't mind with un-fixed backgrounds(the background scrolls with the page)
Things I'd like to suggest:
There are 2 major things that I noticed as soon as I entered
-You said you are paying for add-free, but when I went in I felt swarmed with adds everywhere! And why in your side tables? This is taking up precious space and shrinking your forum really badly.
-On that note, your forum is about an inch to 2 inches wide. If you remove the left side tables with the adds, this will help tremendously! If you need to keep the adds, move them to the bottom or somewhere else, but not on the side. Then see how you like the size. If you think it's still too small in width, then shrink the width of your right side tables slightly
Other suggestions:
-The "Translate with Bing" box on the top left. I don't know if that's my computer acting funky or if that's something you put in. If so, consider removing it. It sticks out and is kind of annoying (again, may just be me haha!). Anyways, if someone needs to translate something, they can go to google
-See about organizing your navigation. You have a ton of links and it looks messy. I would suggest keeping your navigation bar normal, like how it was when you started the site (with home, messages, profile, and members [and admin for you of course]). Then use your headers and footers (global header) to direct people to all of the different places you have in your navigation (I can help you with this if you'd like)
-I would make the "Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register." smaller, especially the "login" and "register" part, and change the colour back so it's not yellow. People will find it, it doesn't need to stick out so much.
-Make the top part of your site a little less colourful and the rest a little more. The top is flooding with reds and yellows and black-grey gradients, which really contrast each other. Contrast can be good, but you have to have the right colours and locations, and I feel the red and yellow text all there doesn't work the best. As I mentioned above, removing the yellow "login" and "register"(and making the font size smaller) and changing your navigation will help this loads!
-Try making your "boards" or stories a different colour other than white. I'll help add some more colour to your forum (:
-Overall the navigation is slightly confusing for me. Mostly because the forum is an inch or 2 wide, but also because there are a lot of links, and there's a lot going on. Try to clean it up as much as you can and make it as simple as you can. People like things that are simple and easy to figure out.
Like I said before, your idea is really unique and cool! You're on the right track, you just need to clean some things up and make it a little more user-friendly, then you'll be good to go! And please note that I always write more suggestions than things I like when I do reviews, it's just how I do them so it's nothing personal