How to Cite a Newspaper Article | MLA, APA & Chicago

To cite an article from a newspaper, you need an in-text citation and a reference listing the author, the publication date, the article’s title, the name of the newspaper, and a URL if it was accessed online.

Different citation styles present this information differently. The main styles are APA, MLA, and Chicago style.

You can explore the format for newspaper article citations in APA and MLA style using the the interactive example generator below.

Note that the format is slightly different when citing an interview published in a newspaper.

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Citing a newspaper article in MLA Style

An MLA Works Cited entry for a newspaper article lists the article title in quotation marks and the name of the newspaper in italics. A URL is listed at the end for an article consulted online.

The MLA in-text citation for an online newspaper article consists solely of the author’s last name.

If the article is from a local newspaper that could be confused with other similarly named publications, include a clarification in square brackets in the Works Cited entry.:

You can also use our free MLA Citation Generator to create your newspaper citations.

Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr

Citing a print article

When the article was consulted in print rather than online, the page number or range of the article is included instead of a URL.

If the article is spread across non-consecutive pages (e.g. begins on p. 1 then continues on p. 5), just write the first number followed by a plus sign (e.g. “pp. 1+”).

In the in-text citation, only specify a page number if the article appears on more than one page; otherwise, it’s unnecessary to do so.

Citing a newspaper article in APA Style

In an APA Style newspaper article reference, the article title is in plain text with sentence-style capitalization, the name of the newspaper in italics with headline capitalization. Include a URL if the article was accessed online. The APA in-text citation omits the page number if unavailable.

You can also cite a newspaper article using our free APA Citation Generator. Search by URL to automatically generate an accurate citation.

Generate accurate APA citations with Scribbr

Citing a print article

If you accessed the article in a print newspaper, the reference entry includes the page number(s) of the article instead of the URL. Newspaper page numbers are sometimes written with a combination of letters and numerals (e.g. D4); the letters should be retained.

Citing a newspaper article in Chicago Style

Chicago style recommends just citing newspaper articles in footnotes, omitting them from the bibliography in most cases.

However, if you need a bibliography entry for a newspaper article, list the article title in quotation marks and the name of the newspaper in italics. Include a URL at the end for online articles.

No page range is included in Chicago style, because articles are frequently split across non-consecutive pages. You also don’t include a page number in the Chicago footnote.

Chicago also presents guidelines for an alternative author-date citation style. Examples of newspaper citations in this style can be found here.

Frequently asked questions about citations

What are the main elements of a newspaper article citation?

The elements included in a newspaper article citation across APA, MLA, and Chicago style are the author name, the article title, the publication date, the newspaper name, and the URL if the article was accessed online.

In APA and MLA, the page numbers of the article appear in place of the URL if the article was accessed in print. No page numbers are used in Chicago newspaper citations.

How do I cite a source with no author?

In APA, MLA, and Chicago style citations for sources that don’t list a specific author (e.g. many websites), you can usually list the organization responsible for the source as the author.

If the organization is the same as the website or publisher, you shouldn’t repeat it twice in your reference:

• In APA and Chicago, omit the website or publisher name later in the reference.
• In MLA, omit the author element at the start of the reference, and cite the source title instead.

If there’s no appropriate organization to list as author, you will usually have to begin the citation and reference entry with the title of the source instead.

How do I cite a source with no page numbers?

When you want to cite a specific passage in a source without page numbers (e.g. an e-book or website), all the main citation styles recommend using an alternate locator in your in-text citation. You might use a heading or chapter number, e.g. (Smith, 2016, ch. 1)

In APA Style, you can count the paragraph numbers in a text to identify a location by paragraph number. MLA and Chicago recommend that you only use paragraph numbers if they’re explicitly marked in the text.

For audiovisual sources (e.g. videos), all styles recommend using a timestamp to show a specific point in the video when relevant.

Which citation style should I use?

Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.

• APA Style is the most popular citation style, widely used in the social and behavioral sciences.
• MLA style is the second most popular, used mainly in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography style is also popular in the humanities, especially history.
• Chicago author-date style tends to be used in the sciences.

Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.

The most important thing is to choose one style and use it consistently throughout your text.