This article explains how to cite a news article, including how to format the publication date, access date, name of the newspaper and article title. The following information covers the main styles of APA and MLA for both online articles and the print version.
Please note that the place of publication (such as the city name) is typically not written when it comes to citing a print article or online articles. Like other mediums, the type of source determines how it’s styled in the references, and it’s important to give an accurate citation. Although keeping the style consistent for the style guide that you chose is important, it is even more important to make sure that you have an accurate citation (it’s better to mess up the formatting than to misattribute the citation, although neither is good).
The main purpose for citing news sites is often to cover some recent development that has occured, regardless of whether you are using a weekly publication or a local newspaper.
APA [7th edition]
- The title of the newspaper should be italicized and written in Title case
- For an online newspaper, be sure to include the article’s URL at the end of the reference to help guide readers.
- For a print newspaper, include the page number[s] after the newspaper title. However, the page number[s] should not be indicated with the abbreviations “p.” or “pp.”
- In cases where the volume, issue, and/or page numbers for the article are not available, the reference should end after the title of the newspaper
- For a newspaper article obtained from an academic research database, include the newspaper title as well as volume, issue, and/or page numbers if available
- For news websites that do not operate associated daily or weekly newspapers [e.g., BBC News, CNN, HuffPost, Vox, CNBC, etc], the citation format is referred to as “webpage on a news website,” [as shown below]
Online newspaper article
| Reference list format | Last Name of article writer, Initials. (Year, Month Day published). Title of article. Name of Newspaper. URL |
| Reference list example | McKenna, M. (2021, June 30). COVID-19 lockdowns caused more deaths instead of reducing them, study finds. The Washington Times. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/ 2021/jun/30/covid-19-lockdowns-caused-more-deaths-instead-of-r/ |
| In-text citation format | Parenthetical: (Last Name of article writer, Year published) Narrative: Last Name of article writer (Year published) |
| In-text citation examples | Parenthetical: (McKenna, 2021) Narrative: McKenna (2021) |
Print version
| Reference list format | Last Name of article writer, Initials. (Year, Month Day published). Title of article. Name of Newspaper. URL |
| Reference list example | McKenna, M. (2021, June 30). COVID-19 lockdowns caused more deaths instead of reducing them, study finds. The Washington Times. A1, A3 |
| In-text citation format | Parenthetical: (Last Name of article writer, Year published) Narrative: Last Name of article writer (Year published) |
| In-text citation examples | Parenthetical: (McKenna, 2021) Narrative: McKenna (2021) |
Newspaper with no volume, issue, or page numbers
| Reference list format | Last Name of article writer, Initials. (Year, Month Day published). Title of article. Name of Newspaper. URL |
| Reference list example | McKenna, M. (2021, June 30). COVID-19 lockdowns caused more deaths instead of reducing them, study finds. The Washington Times. |
| In-text citation format | Parenthetical: (Last Name of article writer, Year published) Narrative: Last Name of article writer (Year published) |
| In-text citation examples | Parenthetical: (McKenna, 2021) Narrative: McKenna (2021) |
Webpage on a news website
| Reference list format | Last Name of article writer, Initials. (Year, Month Day published). Title of article. Name of Newspaper. URL |
| Reference list example | Cohan, M. (2021, August 27). Asiya Mohammed overcomes tragedy to become Kenya’s first female rower at the Tokyo Paralympics. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/27/s port/asiya-mohammed-kenya-rowing-paralympics-spc-spt-intl/index.html |
| In-text citation format | Parenthetical: (Last Name of article writer, Year published) Narrative: Last Name of article writer (Year published) |
| In-text citation examples | Parenthetical: (Cohan, 2021) Narrative: Cohan (2021) |
MLA [8th edition]
Print newspaper
| Reference list format | Last Name of article writer, First Name. “Title of Article.” Name of Newspaper, Day Month Year published, page number. |
| Reference list example | Lukpat, Alyssa. “Former Prosecutor in Ahmaud Arbery’s Death Faces Criminal Charges.” The New York Times, 2 Sept. 2021, p. 7. |
| In-text citation format | Parenthetical: (Last Name of article writer) Narrative: Last Name of article writer |
| In-text citation examples | Parenthetical: (Lukpat) Narrative: Lukpat |
Note
For in-text citation, page numbers should be added next to the last name of the article writer only if the article extends beyond more than one page. If the article is captured only in a page then adding page numbers becomes unnecessary.
Online newspaper
| Reference list format | Last Name of article writer, First Name. “Title of Article.” Name of Newspaper, Day Month Year published, URL. |
| Reference list example | Lukpat, Alyssa. “Former Prosecutor in Ahmaud Arbery’s Death Faces Criminal Charges.” The New York Times, 2 Sept. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/us/jackie-johnson-indicted-ahmaud-arbery.html. |
| In-text citation format | Parenthetical: (Last Name of article writer) Narrative: Last Name of article writer |
| In-text citation examples | Parenthetical: (Lukpat) Narrative: Lukpat |
Specific section in a newspaper
| Reference list format | Last Name of article writer, First Name. “Title of Article.” Name of Newspaper, Day Month Year published, Section Title, page number, or URL. |
| Reference list example | Rasgon, Adam. “Palestinians Finally Have Vaccines. But Will People Take Them?” The New York Times, 29 Aug. 2021, Science, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/world/middleeast/palestinians-covid-vaccines-hesitancy.html. |
| In-text citation format | Parenthetical: (Last Name of article writer) Narrative: Last Name of article writer |
| In-text citation examples | Parenthetical: (Rasgon) Narrative: Rasgon |
Editorial
For an editorial signed by the newspaper’s editorial board, there is no need to write in the works-cited-list entry that you are citing an editorial. Since it is often the case that editorials do not have specific authors, the title of the article in quotation marks should suffice for both parenthetical and narrative citations. If the title is lengthy, consider using a shortened version of it in-text, as shown below.
| Reference list format | Editorial Board. “Title of Article.” Name of Newspaper, Day Month Year published, Page number or URL. |
| Reference list example | Editorial Board. “Get Vaccinated. Get Masked. It’s the Only Way Out of This.” New York Times, 5 Aug. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/opinion/coronavirus-mask-vaccine-mandates.html. |
| In-text citation format | Parenthetical: (“Title of Article”) Narrative: “Title of Article” |
| In-text citation examples | Parenthetical: (“Get Vaccinated”) Narrative: “Get Vaccinated” |
Unsigned editorial
In the case of an unsigned editorial, you can still indicate that it is an editorial to your readers by referring to the article as an editorial as you discuss or add “Editorial” as a supplemental or optional element at the end of the works cited entry.
| Reference list format | “Title of Article.” Name of Newspaper, Day Month Year published. Page number or URL. Editorial. |
| Reference list example | “As Elections Approach.” The Washington Post, 9 Oct. 2021, p. A1. Editorial. |
| In-text citation format | Parenthetical: (“Title of Article”) Narrative: “Title of Article” |
| In-text citation examples | Parenthetical: (“As Elections Approach”) Narrative: “As Elections Approach” |