How to Cite a Newspaper Article in APA 7
APA 7 cites a newspaper article as a dated periodical: the byline, the year-month-day, a sentence-case headline, the italic newspaper name, and then either page numbers or a URL that readers can open. This page follows the APA Style newspaper article references page — checked against the University of San Diego and Alamo Colleges reprints of that page — and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, §10.1. The APA Style common reference examples handout, last updated 3 March 2026, supplies the later Bernstein and Reynolds strings. It is the APA newspaper guide. It is not a website, magazine, Chicago newspaper, or MLA newspaper tutorial.
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Quick Answer: How to Cite a Newspaper Article in APA
Name the journalist, write the year, month, and day, put the headline in sentence case, and italicize the newspaper. If you held the print page, add the page numbers after the title and do not write p. or pp. in the reference. If you opened a URL that still works for a reader, add that URL and omit missing volume, issue, and page numbers. If you found the story in a library database and there is no resolving URL, end the reference at the newspaper name. In the text, cite the year only.
APA 7 §10.1 templates
Reference, online newspaper with a resolving URL:
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. https://xxxxx
Reference, print newspaper:
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, page numbers.
Reference, database story with no resolving URL:
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper.
Reference, no byline:
Title of article. (Year, Month Day). Title of Newspaper. https://xxxxx
Parenthetical citation:
(Author, Year)
Narrative citation:
Author (Year)
Parenthetical citation, no byline:
("Shortened Title," Year)
The APA Style newspaper page, aligned with Publication Manual and Concise Guide §10.1, states the URL, print, database, and news-site tests in four sentences this page follows. A fifth sentence on the same page sets the minimum source element. University reprints still carry those five sentences verbatim.
APA Style on newspaper URLs, pages, databases, news sites, and the source element
If the newspaper article is from an online newspaper that has a URL that will resolve for readers (as in the Carey example), include the URL of the article at the end of the reference. If volume, issue, and/or page numbers for the article are missing, omit these elements from the reference.
If you used a print version of the newspaper article (as in the Harlan example), provide the page or pages of the article after the newspaper title. Do not include the abbreviations “p.” or “pp.” before the page(s).
If the newspaper article is from an academic research database, provide the title of the newspaper and any volume, issue, and/or page numbers that are available for the article. Do not include database information in the reference. If the article does not have volume, issue, or page numbers available, the reference in this case ends with the title of the newspaper (as in the Stobbe example).
If the article is from a news website (e.g., CNN, HuffPost)—one that does not have an associated daily or weekly newspaper—use the format for a webpage on a news website instead.
In the source element of the reference, provide at minimum the title of the newspaper in italic title case.
Newspaper vs News Website vs Magazine
APA 7 does not treat every news URL as a newspaper. The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and other papers with a daily or weekly edition stay in §10.1 even when you read them online — including a Times magazine-desk story that still runs under the newspaper masthead. CNN, HuffPost, BBC News, Reuters, Vox, and similar sites without a newspaper edition are webpages on a news website under §10.16: italicize the story title, not the site name. Magazines keep volume and issue numbers when they print them. Journal articles use the year only and a DOI when one exists.
| What you opened | Treat it as | Italicize | End the reference with |
|---|---|---|---|
| nytimes.com, washingtonpost.com, a printed broadsheet, a Times magazine-desk story | Newspaper article (§10.1) | The newspaper name | A resolving URL, or page numbers, or the newspaper title |
| CNN, HuffPost, BBC News, Vox, Reuters.com, BET News | Webpage on a news website (§10.16) | The story title | The site name, then the URL |
| The Atlantic, Time, National Geographic | Magazine article (§10.1) | The magazine name | Volume, issue, pages, and a URL or DOI when present |
| A peer-reviewed journal PDF | Journal article (§10.1) | The journal name and volume | A DOI written as https://doi.org/... |
The APA Style webpage on a news website page — still the live official set with Toner (CNN), Bologna (HuffPost), and Roberts (BET News) — draws the newspaper line in three sentences, then four more that tell you which element to italicize.
APA Style on news websites versus newspaper websites
Use this format for articles from news websites. Common examples are BBC News, BET News, Bloomberg, CNN, HuffPost, MSNBC, Reuters, Salon, and Vox. These sites do not have associated daily or weekly newspapers.
Use the newspaper article category for articles from newspaper websites such as The New York Times or The Washington Post.
Provide the title of the news story in italic sentence case.
Provide the writer as the author.
Provide the specific date the story was published.
List the name of the news website in the source element of the reference.
End the reference with the URL.
Those italics move. Carey italicizes The New York Times. Toner italicizes the CNN headline. The 3 March 2026 instructional aid repeats the news-website pattern with Allie Volpe's Vox feature. On 18 September 2026 the Toner, Bologna, and Volpe URLs still opened. Keep the official Toner date of 24 September 2020 even though the CNN URL path is 4 June 2020 and the live story later stamped an update of 4 December 2020 — that date trap is why Toner belongs in the contrast box, not as a newspaper.
Official APA news-website examples (Toner, Bologna, Volpe)
Webpage on a news website, Style Center (§10.16):
Toner, K. (2020, September 24). When Covid-19 hit, he turned his newspaper route into a lifeline for senior citizens. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/04/us/coronavirus-newspaper-deliveryman-groceries-senior-citizens-cnnheroes-trnd/index.html
Webpage on a news website, Style Center (§10.16):
Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e
Webpage on a news website, 2026 instructional aid (§10.16):
Volpe, A. (2024, June 3). How the self-care industry made us so lonely. Vox. https://www.vox.com/even-better/350424/self-care-isolation-loneliness-epidemic
Parenthetical citations:
(Bologna, 2019; Toner, 2020; Volpe, 2024)
Anatomy of an APA 7 Newspaper Reference
Section 10.1 uses the same four elements as every APA reference — author, date, title, source — plus newspaper-specific extras: a full calendar date, no p. prefix on reference-list pages, and a three-way choice among URL, pages, and a database stop. The APA Style elements of reference list entries page is the general map; the newspaper examples supply the extra rules.
| Element | What to write | Where students go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Author | The byline, or the headline if there is no byline | Writing "Staff Writer," inventing a reporter, or putting Associated Press in the author slot when a named journalist appears |
| Date | Year, month, and day of publication | Using only the year, today's date, a copyright-footer year, or a "last reviewed" stamp |
| Title | The headline in sentence case, no quotation marks, no italics | Headline-capitalizing the whole title, or wrapping it in quotes as MLA would |
| Newspaper | The masthead name in italic title case, including The when the paper uses it | Writing nytimes.com, omitting The New York Times's The, or italicizing the headline instead |
| Pages | Print section letters and numbers after a comma: A1, A4 | Writing p. A1 or pp. A1, A4 in the reference list — that is APA 6 |
| URL or stop | A URL that opens the story, or nothing after the newspaper name | Pasting a Nexis Uni session link, adding "Retrieved from," or pairing a paywalled URL with an access date |
Author
Use the name on the byline, inverted, with initials: Carey, B. Two authors take an ampersand. Three or more authors still appear in the reference (up to 20 names) and collapse to et al. in the text; see how to cite multiple authors. A columnist is the author of an opinion piece. If the only credit is a news agency and no reporter is named, the agency can be the group author. If a named journalist wrote the story and a wire service later picked it up, keep the journalist — Stobbe is the author of the Chicago Tribune database example even though the reporting is Associated Press. If there is no byline at all, move the headline to the author position and see how to cite a source with no author. Do not write "Staff Writer" or "Anonymous" as the author unless the piece is actually signed Anonymous.
Date
Newspapers publish every day, so APA 7 wants the year, the month written out, and the day: (2019, March 22). Journals use the year alone; newspapers do not. In the text, cite the year only unless you are distinguishing two stories by the same author in the same year — then add letter suffixes (2019a, 2019b) on both the reference and the citation. If a living news page is continually updated and not archived, that is a webpage problem, not a newspaper-archive problem — see how to cite a source with no date. Do not use the date you downloaded a PDF. Do not use a footer copyright year. The official webpage-references rules also kill the "last reviewed" stamp and the site-wide copyright year students copy from news footers.
APA Style on last-updated dates, last-reviewed stamps, copyright footers, and retrieval dates
Some online works note when the work was last updated. If this date is clearly attributable to the specific content you are citing rather than the overall website, use the updated date in the reference.
Do not include a date of last review in a reference because content that has been reviewed has not necessarily been changed. If a date of last review is noted on a work, ignore it for the purposes of the reference.
Do not use a copyright date from a webpage or website footer because this date may not indicate when the content on the site was published.
When contents of a page are designed to change over time but are not archived, include a retrieval date in the reference.
A typical Times or Post article is archived. Use the publication date the paper assigned the version you cite. Ignore "last reviewed." Ignore © 2026 in the site footer. Add a retrieval date only when the page is designed to change and is not archived — that is the Census population-clock pattern, not Carey.
Article title
Write the headline in sentence case: capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Leave the title in roman type. Do not put quotation marks around it in the reference list; quotation marks appear only in a no-author in-text citation. Keep a subtitle if the paper printed one. For an editorial, letter, or review, add a bracketed description after the title.
Newspaper name
Italicize the newspaper in title case. Official APA examples keep The when it is part of the masthead: The New York Times, The Washington Post. Chicago's Quick Guide drops that The (New York Times); do not import the Chicago habit into an APA list. Do not substitute the domain name. If the paper is obscure and the city is not in the title, APA 7 lets you add the location in square brackets after the newspaper name. That is a labelled template below, not a license to invent a local paper.
Pages, URLs, and databases
Print pages follow the newspaper title after a comma. Keep section letters. Discontinuous pages are a comma-separated list: A1, A4. Do not write p. or pp. in the reference — APA 6 did; APA 7 does not. Those abbreviations still appear in in-text locators when you quote a print page. For an online paper, prefer the article URL. For a database copy with no URL a reader can open, stop after the newspaper name. Never name LexisNexis, Nexis Uni, ProQuest, or Factiva in an ordinary newspaper reference. If you read a digitized replica of the print edition, use the print date and the print pages — do not add a database URL to look complete.
Official APA Newspaper Examples
These three references are the worked set on the APA Style newspaper article references page. Carey is an online New York Times story with a resolving URL. Harlan is a print Washington Post story with discontinuous pages. Stobbe is an Associated Press story recovered from a database as it ran in the Chicago Tribune, so the reference ends at the newspaper title — not at "Associated Press" and not at the database name. USD and Alamo still reprint the same three strings.
APA Style newspaper examples (Carey, Harlan, Stobbe)
Online newspaper, resolving URL:
Carey, B. (2019, March 22). Can we get better at forgetting? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/health/memory-forgetting-psychology.html
Print newspaper, discontinuous pages:
Harlan, C. (2013, April 2). North Korea vows to restart shuttered nuclear reactor that can make bomb-grade plutonium. The Washington Post, A1, A4.
Database newspaper, no resolving URL:
Stobbe, M. (2020, January 8). Cancer death rate in U.S. sees largest one-year drop ever. Chicago Tribune.
Parenthetical citations:
(Carey, 2019; Harlan, 2013; Stobbe, 2020)
Narrative citations:
Carey (2019), Harlan (2013), and Stobbe (2020)
The APA Style common reference examples handout, last updated 3 March 2026, repeats the §10.1 pattern with two later official strings. Bernstein is a Times magazine-desk feature. APA still cites it as a newspaper article, not as a magazine with a volume and issue: the masthead is The New York Times. Reynolds is a print Times sports-science column with a section page.
APA Style instructional-aid newspaper examples (Bernstein, Reynolds)
Online newspaper article (§10.1):
Bernstein, J. (2024, June 3). The man who couldn’t stop going to college. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/03/magazine/benjamin-bolger-college-harvard-yale.html
Print newspaper article (§10.1):
Reynolds, G. (2019, April 9). Different strokes for athletic hearts. The New York Times, D4.
In-Text Citations and Quotations
The reference carries the full date. The in-text citation does not. Quote a print story with a page locator and a p. or pp. prefix — that is the one place those abbreviations still belong. Quote an online story with a paragraph number when the site has no stable pages (APA 7 §8.28). Two stories by the same author in the same year take letter suffixes on the year in both the reference and the text. The letter-suffix lines below are labelled templates; do not invent a second Carey story to demonstrate them.
In-text forms for the official newspaper examples
Parenthetical:
(Carey, 2019)
Narrative:
Carey (2019)
Print quotation with a page locator:
(Harlan, 2013, p. A1)
Online quotation with a paragraph locator:
(Carey, 2019, para. 4)
No-byline parenthetical (title case, quotation marks):
("Shortened Title," Year)
Same-author same-year template, not a real second story:
(Author, 2019a; Author, 2019b)
Failure Modes Students Actually Hit
No byline
Unsigned briefs and some wire pickups start with the headline. In the text, shorten that headline to a few words, switch it to title case, and put it in quotation marks. Do not invent a reporter. Do not credit "Staff." Use Anonymous only when the piece is signed that way. The template below is labelled as a template because a fabricated unsigned story would be worse than no example.
No-byline template, not a real article
Reference template:
Title of article. (Year, Month Day). Title of Newspaper. https://xxxxx
Parenthetical template:
("Shortened Title," Year)
Narrative template:
"Shortened Title" (Year)
Wire service bylines and Associated Press pickups
Stobbe is the official proof. The story is Associated Press reporting that ran in the Chicago Tribune. APA still names Mike Stobbe as the author and the Tribune as the newspaper. Do not move Associated Press into the author slot when a reporter is named. Do not cite "AP" as the newspaper. Do not add "Retrieved from the Associated Press." If the only credit on the page is the agency and no journalist appears, the agency can be the group author — that is a missing-reporter case, not a Stobbe case. If the same wire story later ran under a different masthead, cite the edition you actually read.
Editorials, opinion, and letters
A signed column uses the columnist as author. After the headline, add a bracketed description so a reader can see the genre: [Editorial], [Op-ed], or [Letter to the editor]. APA 7 uses the same bracket device for reviews. An editorial-board byline is a group author, not a missing journalist. Do not treat an unsigned editorial-board piece as a news report with a missing reporter — move the headline forward if there is no personal byline and no board name.
Opinion and letter templates, not invented columns
Signed opinion template:
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article [Op-ed]. Title of Newspaper. https://xxxxx
Unsigned editorial template:
Title of editorial [Editorial]. (Year, Month Day). Title of Newspaper. https://xxxxx
Letter to the editor template:
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of letter [Letter to the editor]. Title of Newspaper, page.
Comments on an online newspaper article
A reader comment is a separate source. Credit the name or username that appears with the comment, give the comment date, use up to the first 20 words as the title, then add a bracketed "Comment on the article" note and a URL that opens the comment if you can. This is the official APA Style comment example, including the shortened Washington Post URL. A comment on a CNN or HuffPost story uses the news-website comment format instead.
APA Style on comments attached to newspaper stories
Credit the person who left the comment as the author using the format that appears with the comment (i.e., a real name or a username). The example shows a username.
Provide the comment title or up to the first 20 words of the comment; then write “Comment on the article” and the title of the article on which the comment appeared (in quotation marks and sentence case, enclosed within square brackets).
Link to the comment itself if possible. Either the full URL or a short URL is acceptable. The example shows a URL that the writer has shortened with the bitly URL shortening service.
If the comment belongs to an article from a news website (e.g., CNN, HuffPost)—one that does not have an associated daily or weekly newspaper—use the format for a comment on a webpage on a news website.
APA Style comment on an online newspaper article
Reference:
sidneyf. (2020, October 7). Oh, I don’t know; perhaps the common-sense conclusion that packing people together — for hours — like sardines — may be an [Comment on the article “When will it be safe to travel again?”]. The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3757UlS
Parenthetical citation:
(sidneyf, 2020)
Narrative citation:
sidneyf (2020)
Paywalls, library access, and "Retrieved from"
A subscription wall does not remove the URL. Readers may have their own login or a library proxy. APA 7 dropped "Retrieved from" for ordinary archived newspaper stories. Add a retrieval date only when the page is designed to change and is not archived. Do not paste a database session URL that dies when the tab closes. If the database copy is the only version you have and no public URL works, follow the Stobbe pattern and stop at the newspaper title. Before you submit, open every URL in the list. If a story has vanished, look for an archived copy on the Internet Archive rather than leaving a dead link — that is the Publication Manual's URL-testing advice (pp. 298–300), restated by Royal Roads University, not a license to invent a Wayback URL.
Print edition versus the same story online
Cite the version you actually read. Online copy is often longer, retitled, or updated after the press run. If you held the paper, use Harlan's page pattern. If you opened the site, use Carey's URL pattern. If you read a scanned replica of the print edition in a library database, keep the print date and pages and do not graft on a public URL you never opened. Do not combine page numbers and a URL in one reference to look complete. Do not cite both editions as if they were one source.
A Times magazine URL that is still a newspaper
Bernstein's official URL contains /magazine/. Students move that story into the magazine format and start hunting for a volume and issue. APA's instructional aid still files it under Online Newspaper Article (§10.1) because the container is The New York Times. Use the magazine format only when the masthead is a magazine (The Atlantic, Time). Use the news-website format only when there is no newspaper edition (Vox, CNN).
A CNN URL date that is not a newspaper date
Toner is the official CNN contrast, not a newspaper example. The Style Center date is 24 September 2020. The URL path is 4 June 2020. The live CNN page later showed a 4 December 2020 update. Students "correct" the official date to the URL or to the update stamp, then italicize CNN as if it were The New York Times. Do neither. Leave Toner on the news-website side of the italic test, keep the official September 24 string, and put Carey — not Toner — in a psychology paper's newspaper slot. Some LibGuides still reprint an older Woodyatt CNN naps story; the live Style Center example is Toner.
Local papers whose city is not in the name
If the masthead is generic — a Daily Tribune or Gazette that could be anywhere — APA 7 allows the city and state or country in square brackets after the italic title. Use that only when the location is not already obvious. The line below is a template. The old version of this page invented a Phoenix Daily Tribune story; that example is gone.
Local-paper location template, not a real masthead
Print template:
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Newspaper Name [City, ST], page.
Citing CNN or BBC as if they were newspapers
Italicize the story, not the site. Compare Toner and Bologna with Carey: the italics moved from the newspaper name to the headline. Reuters.com, BBC News, and HuffPost follow Bologna. The New York Times and The Washington Post follow Carey even when you never touched newsprint. For the full news-website pattern, including Roberts on BET News, use the APA website guide.
Newspaper vs Magazine vs Journal, Side by Side
Use the newspaper format when
- The masthead is a daily or weekly paper, print or online
- A Times or Post magazine-desk story still sits under that newspaper masthead
- You need the month and day, not only the year
- There is no volume and issue in the usual journal sense
- The assignment asked for APA and the source is news reporting, not a study
Use another format when
- The site is CNN, Vox, or another news website with no newspaper edition
- The source is a magazine with a volume and issue
- The source is a peer-reviewed journal with a DOI
- The assignment asked for Chicago notes or MLA
Chicago often leaves a newspaper in the notes and out of the bibliography, and Chicago's Quick Guide writes New York Times without The. APA 7 wants a reference-list entry for every newspaper story you cite, and official APA examples keep The. Copying Chicago's "notes only" habit or its dropped article into an APA psychology paper will look like missing sources or a mistitled masthead. If you are switching styles rather than writing APA, use the Chicago newspaper guide. If you interviewed someone and the interview later ran as a newspaper Q&A, cite the published article here and see how to cite an interview in APA for unpublished conversations.
Build the reference from the byline and the masthead
Paste the article URL into the APA generator, or enter the byline, full date, headline, and newspaper name in the newspaper tool. Then check the three APA 7 tests: resolving URL, print pages without p., or a database stop at the newspaper title.
Related Guides
- How to Cite Magazine Articles in APA
- How to Cite a Website in APA
- How to Cite Journal Articles in APA
- How to Cite a Newspaper Article in Chicago
- How to Cite Newspapers in MLA
- How to Cite a Source With No Author
- How to Cite a Source With No Date
- How to Cite an Interview in APA
Frequently Asked Questions
- Do I put p. or pp. before newspaper page numbers in APA 7?
- Not in the reference list. APA 7 prints Harlan as The Washington Post, A1, A4 — no
p.prefix. Usep.orpp.only in an in-text locator when you quote a print page, for example (Harlan, 2013, p. A1). APA 6 usedpp. A1, A4in the reference; that is outdated. - Do I include an access date or "Retrieved from" for an online newspaper?
- No for an ordinary archived story. APA 7 dropped "Retrieved from" and does not want the date you opened the tab. Add a retrieval date only when the page is designed to change and is not archived. A typical Times or Post article is archived.
- How do I cite a newspaper article from Nexis Uni, ProQuest, or Factiva?
- Cite the newspaper, not the database. If a public URL will open for readers, use it. If not, include the newspaper name and any pages you have, then stop — the Stobbe Chicago Tribune example ends there. Do not write "Nexis Uni" or paste a session link.
- Should I omit "The" from The New York Times?
- No. Official APA 7 examples keep The when it is part of the masthead: The New York Times, The Washington Post. Chicago's Quick Guide drops that article. Do not replace the masthead with nytimes.com.
- How do I cite a CNN or BBC story in APA 7?
- Not as a newspaper. CNN, BBC News, HuffPost, Reuters, and Vox are news websites under §10.16. Italicize the story title and leave the site name in roman type, as in the official Toner CNN, Bologna HuffPost, and Volpe Vox examples. Use the newspaper format only for papers that have a daily or weekly edition.
- Is a New York Times Magazine story a magazine or a newspaper in APA 7?
- A newspaper, when the masthead is The New York Times. The official Bernstein example lives at a
/magazine/URL and is still filed as an Online Newspaper Article in the 3 March 2026 instructional aid. Use the magazine format only when the publication itself is a magazine with a volume and issue. - What date do I use if the online story was updated after publication?
- Use the publication date the newspaper assigned the article when that date is the date of the version you cite. APA's newspaper examples use a single calendar date. If a last-updated stamp is clearly for this story, not the whole site, APA's webpage rule lets you use that updated date. Ignore a "last reviewed" stamp and a footer copyright year. Do not "correct" Toner to the June 4 URL path or the December 4 CNN update — the official Style Center string is 24 September 2020.
- Do I cite the print edition or the online edition of the same story?
- Cite the one you read. Print and web versions can differ in headline, length, and page breaks. Print takes page numbers and no URL. Online takes a resolving URL and omits missing pages. A scanned replica of the print edition keeps the print pages. Do not merge the two.
- How do I cite an Associated Press story that ran in a newspaper?
- Name the journalist if the paper printed a byline, then name the newspaper you actually read. Stobbe — not "Associated Press" — is the author of the official Chicago Tribune database example. Cite the agency as a group author only when no reporter is named. If the same wire copy later appeared under another masthead, cite the edition you opened.
- How do I cite an unsigned newspaper article?
- Move the headline to the front of the reference and drop the author element. In the text, shorten the headline, use title case, and put it in quotation marks: ("Shortened Title," Year). Do not invent a byline or write Anonymous unless the piece is signed that way.
- Does a paywalled newspaper article still get a URL?
- Yes, when that URL is the public address of the story. APA 7 assumes readers may have their own subscription or library access. If no URL will resolve, follow the database rule and end at the newspaper title. Test the link before you submit; if the story has vanished, look for an archived copy rather than leaving a dead URL.