How to Cite a Newspaper Article (Print and Online)
Newspaper articles look simple to cite, but the details trip up most students: the print and online editions of the same story carry different page numbers (or none at all), wire copy from the Associated Press appears under multiple bylines, and op-eds need a label so readers know they are opinion, not reporting. This guide walks through APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago (both systems), and Harvard, then covers the edge cases — paywalled archives, syndicated columns, and news-site blogs. If you would rather skip the rules, our free citation generator formats any newspaper URL into the style you need in seconds.
What information you need
Every newspaper citation — across every style — is built from the same small set of bibliographic fields. Collect these before you start formatting, and the rest is mechanical:
- Author (byline). The reporter or columnist named at the top of the article. Wire stories may show "Associated Press" or "Reuters" instead of an individual.
- Publication date. Day, month, and year. Newspapers update online stories — use the original publication date if it is shown, not the "last updated" timestamp.
- Article title. Use the headline as printed. Subheadings (deks) are usually omitted.
- Newspaper name. Italicized in every major style. Drop a leading "The" in MLA; keep it in APA and Chicago.
- Section and page numbers (print only). For example, "Section A, p. 12" or "p. B4."
- URL or DOI (online only). Newspapers almost never carry DOIs — you will use the article URL.
- Edition or location (when relevant). "Late edition," "National edition," or "New York ed." disambiguates regional print runs.
If your article appears in both print and online editions, cite the version you actually consulted. Page numbers belong with the print version; URLs belong with the online version. Mixing them is one of the most common errors graders flag.
How to cite a newspaper article in APA
APA 7 treats newspaper articles like any other periodical: author, date, title, source, locator. The key distinction from journals is that the date is given as year, month, day rather than just the year, and there is no volume or issue number.
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article in sentence case. Newspaper Name, Section page–page.
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article in sentence case. Newspaper Name. https://www.example.com/article-url
Tavernise, S. (2024, March 18). Birth rates are falling faster than demographers predicted. The New York Times, A1, A14.
Lowrey, A. (2025, January 9). The hidden cost of remote work for junior employees. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/remote-work-junior
APA in-text citations follow the standard author-date pattern. For
direct quotations, include a page number for print sources or a
paragraph number for online articles without page numbers
(para. 4).
Birth rates have dropped to a level "no demographer predicted just a decade ago" (Tavernise, 2024, p. A14).
Junior staff working from home miss out on most of the informal mentoring that drives early-career promotions (Lowrey, 2025, para. 6).
How to cite a newspaper article in MLA
MLA 9 uses the standard nine-element template: Author, Title of source, Title of container, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location. For newspaper articles, the container is the newspaper itself, and the location is either page numbers (print) or a URL (online). MLA drops a leading "The" from periodical titles in works-cited entries.
Author Last, First. "Title of Article in Title Case." Newspaper Name, Day Month Year, p. xx.
Author Last, First. "Title of Article in Title Case." Newspaper Name, Day Month Year, URL.
Tavernise, Sabrina. "Birth Rates Are Falling Faster than Demographers Predicted." New York Times, 18 Mar. 2024, p. A1.
Lowrey, Annie. "The Hidden Cost of Remote Work for Junior Employees." Atlantic, 9 Jan. 2025, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/remote-work-junior.
MLA in-text citations use the author's last name and a page number (when available). For online articles with no fixed page numbers, cite by author only — do not invent paragraph numbers unless the source numbers them itself.
The decline appeared first in college-educated women born after 1990 (Tavernise A14).
Remote junior employees report fewer informal feedback conversations than their in-office peers (Lowrey).
How to cite a newspaper article in Chicago Notes-Bibliography
Chicago is the most relaxed of the major styles about newspapers: the 17th edition explicitly says newspaper articles are usually cited in notes only, with no entry in the bibliography unless the paper is a critical source. If a bibliography entry is required, the format mirrors a journal article but uses the date in place of volume and issue.
1. First Last, "Title of Article," Newspaper Name, Month Day, Year, URL.
Last, First. "Title of Article." Newspaper Name, Month Day, Year. URL.
1. Annie Lowrey, "The Hidden Cost of Remote Work for Junior Employees," The Atlantic, January 9, 2025, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/remote-work-junior.
2. Sabrina Tavernise, "Birth Rates Are Falling Faster than Demographers Predicted," The New York Times, March 18, 2024, A1.
Lowrey, "Hidden Cost." — for every
subsequent reference to the same article.
How to cite a newspaper article in Chicago Author-Date and Harvard
Chicago Author-Date and most Harvard variants use a parenthetical author-date in the text and a reference list at the end. The reference entry differs slightly from Notes-Bibliography mainly in where the year sits.
Last, First. Year. "Title of Article." Newspaper Name, Month Day, Year. URL.
Lowrey, Annie. 2025. "The Hidden Cost of Remote Work for Junior Employees." The Atlantic, January 9, 2025. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/remote-work-junior.
Lowrey, A. (2025) 'The hidden cost of remote work for junior employees', The Atlantic, 9 January. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/remote-work-junior (Accessed: 7 May 2026).
Recent reporting suggests informal mentoring is the largest casualty of remote work for early-career staff (Lowrey, 2025).
Other relevant styles
AMA (American Medical Association)
AMA uses superscript numerals in the text and a numbered reference list. Newspaper citations are uncommon in clinical writing but appear in public-health and policy work.
1. Tavernise S. Birth rates are falling faster than demographers predicted. The New York Times. March 18, 2024:A1.
Vancouver
Vancouver style (used by many biomedical journals) follows similar conventions to AMA but typically abbreviates dates and omits article titles in some journals.
Tavernise S. Birth rates are falling faster than demographers predicted. New York Times. 2024 Mar 18;Sect. A:1.
AP-style attribution (journalism)
Note that citing newspapers in journalism follows AP style, which uses inline attribution rather than formal references — a topic outside the scope of academic citation. If you are writing for a newsroom rather than a class, the rules differ.
Edge cases
Print vs online editions
Newspapers routinely publish a story online hours before it appears in print, sometimes with a different headline. Always cite the version you read. If you read the online version, the URL replaces the page numbers; if you read the print version, the page numbers replace the URL. Do not list both unless your style guide explicitly requires it.
Paywalled or archived articles
Most academic citation styles do not require a database name for newspaper articles you accessed through a paywall (NYT, WSJ) or a library archive (ProQuest Historical Newspapers, NewsBank). Cite the article exactly as if it were freely available. If a stable archive URL exists (a permalink, not a session link), use that. APA 7 explicitly allows you to omit the database name for sources also published on the open web.
Wire stories (AP, Reuters, AFP)
Wire stories pose an authorship puzzle: the same article appears in dozens of newspapers, sometimes under a staff byline and sometimes credited to "Associated Press" or "Reuters." Cite the version you actually read, and use the byline as printed in that newspaper. If only the wire service is credited, treat the wire service as the author.
Associated Press. (2024, July 22). Heat dome shatters records across the southern U.S. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/07/22/heat-dome-records
Syndicated columns
Columnists like Paul Krugman or David Brooks write a single column that appears in many papers. Cite the columnist as author and the newspaper where you actually read the column. The column title is the headline as it appeared there (newspapers sometimes change syndicated headlines).
Op-eds, editorials, and letters to the editor
Identify the article type in square brackets after the title in APA and Chicago, or as a normal label in MLA. Unsigned editorials are cited with the newspaper as author.
Krugman, P. (2024, October 14). The productivity puzzle is finally solved [Op-ed]. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/opinion/productivity-puzzle.html
"The Case for a Carbon Tax." Editorial. Financial Times, 22 Feb. 2025, www.ft.com/content/carbon-tax-editorial.
Blog-style reporting on news sites
Many news sites host blogs (Politico's "Playbook," NYT's "The Daily 360") that look like newspaper articles but are technically blog posts. Cite them as you would the parent newspaper — the distinction rarely matters to graders, and the bibliographic information is the same.
Archived historical newspapers
For a historical article retrieved from a digital archive (Library of Congress's Chronicling America, ProQuest Historical Newspapers), cite the original publication date and page, and add the database name and stable URL only if your style requires it. Chicago recommends including the database for older sources to help readers relocate them.
Common mistakes
Mixing print page numbers with a URL
If you cite a URL, you read the online version — so the print page numbers do not apply, and they will mislead readers who try to find the article. Pick one location field per citation.
Using the "last updated" date instead of the publication date
Many news sites stamp articles with both an "originally published" and a "last updated" timestamp. The original publication date is the correct one to cite — it is the date the journalism was first made public.
Treating the newspaper as the author when there's a byline
If a reporter is named at the top of the article, they are the author. Use the newspaper as author only for unsigned editorials or when no byline appears.
Forgetting the section letter
Print page numbers in major US newspapers include a section letter (A1, B4, D7). Drop the letter and you misdirect readers — page 1 without a section could be Sports, Business, or the front page.
Including the database name for paywalled articles
APA 7 dropped the requirement to list a database name for newspaper articles available on the open web, even if you accessed them through a paywall via your library. Adding "ProQuest" or "NewsBank" clutters the citation without helping readers find the source.
Italicizing the article title
The newspaper name is italicized; the article title is not. The article title sits in quotation marks (MLA, Chicago) or appears plain in sentence case (APA).
Quick reference summary
| Style | Reference list format | In-text format |
|---|---|---|
| APA 7 | Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title. Newspaper, Section page. URL | (Author, Year) |
| MLA 9 | Last, First. "Title." Newspaper, Day Mon. Year, p. x or URL. | (Author Page) or (Author) |
| Chicago N-B | Last, First. "Title." Newspaper, Month Day, Year. URL. | Footnote / endnote |
| Chicago A-D | Last, First. Year. "Title." Newspaper, Month Day. URL. | (Author Year) |
| Harvard | Author, A. (Year) 'Title', Newspaper, Day Month. Available at: URL. | (Author, Year) |
| AMA | Author A. Title. Newspaper. Date:Section page. | Superscript number |
| Vancouver | Author A. Title. Newspaper. Year Month Day;Sect. X:page. | Bracketed number |
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