APA Cite A Newspaper | Exact Format For Print And Web

Citing a newspaper article in APA style feels simple until you hit real-life details: no author, two dates on the page, an article that jumps from A1 to A10, or a link that’s longer than your whole paragraph.

This article gives you a repeatable method. You’ll know what to copy, what to skip, and how to format it so your reference list and in-text citations stay clean.

What Counts As A Newspaper Source In APA Style

In APA 7, “newspaper” usually means a news article published by a newspaper brand, either in print or on that newspaper’s own site. The citation parts stay familiar: who wrote it, when it ran, what the article is called, and where it lives.

The two main paths are simple:

• Print newspaper: you cite page numbers (plus section letters if they’re shown).
• Online newspaper page: you cite the URL and leave out page numbers.

If your article is on a news site that isn’t a newspaper brand (think a wire service or a web-only outlet), APA may treat it as a webpage-style reference. Your instructor’s rules still matter, so match the style they want.

What To Collect Before You Write The Citation

Before you type anything, grab the pieces that affect formatting. This saves you from rewriting the same citation three times.

Author Line

Look for a person’s name first. If you see multiple names, keep the order as published. If there’s no person listed, check if a group name clearly owns the piece (a newsroom or agency name). If there’s no clear author at all, the title moves into the author slot in the reference list.

Date Details

Use the publication date shown with the article. Newspapers often display a time, an “updated” stamp, or both. For APA references, you use the date of publication, written as year, month, day. If a page shows only a year, you use just the year. If a page shows month and year, you use those two.

Article Title And Newspaper Name

The article title is written in sentence case. That means you capitalize the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon. The newspaper name is italicized and kept in its published title form.

Location Info

For print, the location info is the page range. For online, it’s the URL. Don’t add “Retrieved from” for a standard newspaper story that’s not meant to change over time.

APA Cite A Newspaper In Print: The Reference Format

Print citations are straightforward once you lock the order. This is the pattern:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, page range.

How To Write Page Numbers The Way Newspapers Show Them

Newspapers often use section letters with page numbers, like A1, B4, or C7. Keep those letters. If the article continues on nonconsecutive pages, list each page or range, separated by commas.

• Single page: A4
• Range: A4–A5
• Nonconsecutive pages: A1, A10

What If The Print Copy Is A PDF?

If the PDF matches the print layout and clearly shows page numbers, you can treat it like print and use pages. If the PDF is more like a web page with no stable pages, cite it like an online article with a URL.

Taking A Newspaper Article Into APA Style With A URL

When you read the story on the newspaper’s website, you drop the pages and add the URL. The pattern looks like this:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. URL

If you want a quick reality check against an official model, APA’s own examples for online and print newspaper references are worth keeping open in a tab: APA Style newspaper article reference examples.

Clean URL Rules That Keep Your Reference List Readable

Use the direct link to the article. Don’t add a period after the URL, since punctuation can break the link. If your link contains tracking junk, a cleaner canonical link is fine as long as it lands on the same article.

Do You Need The Newspaper’s City Or State?

No. APA 7 removed the old habit of adding a location for publishers in most references. For newspaper articles, the newspaper name already identifies the source.

What If The Article Has A Section Like “Opinion” Or “Sports”?

In most cases, you don’t add the section name. The reference is built from author, date, title, newspaper, and pages or URL. If your assignment asks for extra info, follow that rule for that class.

Common Newspaper Citation Cases And The Right Template

Most mistakes happen when the article doesn’t fit the “one author, one page range, neat URL” pattern. Use the row that matches your case, then plug in your details.

Situation	What To Put In The Reference	Notes That Prevent Errors
Print, one author, one page	Author. (Year, Month Day). Title. Newspaper, A4.	Keep section letters if shown.
Print, one author, page range	Author. (Year, Month Day). Title. Newspaper, A4–A5.	Use an en dash for ranges.
Print, story continues later	Author. (Year, Month Day). Title. Newspaper, A1, A10.	List each page or range, comma-separated.
Online, one author	Author. (Year, Month Day). Title. Newspaper. URL	No pages when you cite the URL.
Online, two authors	Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year, Month Day). Title. Newspaper. URL	Use an ampersand only inside the reference.
No author listed	Title of article. (Year, Month Day). Newspaper. URL or pages	Move the title into the author spot.
Group author (newsroom)	Organization Name. (Year, Month Day). Title. Newspaper. URL	Use the group name exactly as shown.
Same author, same date, two stories	Author. (2026, March 3a). Title… / Author. (2026, March 3b). Title…	Letters match your in-text citations, too.

In-Text Citations For Newspaper Articles

Your reader should be able to match each in-text citation to one reference entry. APA’s standard method is author and year, with the page added for direct quotes from paged sources.

Parenthetical Citation

Put the author’s last name and the year in parentheses.

• One author: (Lopez, 2024)
• Two authors: (Lopez & Chen, 2024)
• Three or more authors: (Lopez et al., 2024)

Narrative Citation

Use the author name in the sentence, then put the year in parentheses right after the name.

• Lopez (2024) reports that…

Direct Quotes And Page Numbers

If you quote a print article, add the page. If the newspaper uses section letters, keep them.

• Short quote: (Lopez, 2024, p. A4)
• Range: (Lopez, 2024, pp. A4–A5)

If you quote an online newspaper story with no pages, your instructor may want a paragraph number or a heading plus paragraph count. Class rules differ, so follow the rule set you’ve been given. For the basic author-date approach, Purdue OWL’s summary is a handy cross-check: Purdue OWL in-text citation basics.

Edge Cases That Trip People Up

These show up a lot in student papers. The fix is usually one clean choice, then consistent formatting across your whole reference list.

Missing Author

If there’s no author, start the reference with the title. In the in-text citation, use the first few words of the title in quotation marks, plus the year. Keep it short but clear enough to match the reference list entry.

Missing Date

If you truly can’t find a date, use (n.d.). With newspapers, a date is usually present somewhere on the page, so double-check the article header, footer, or print view.

Titles With Colons

Keep the colon. In sentence case, capitalize the first word after the colon in the article title.

Same Newspaper, Same Day, Many Articles

If you cite several stories from the same newspaper date, nothing special changes in the reference list. Each entry still gets its own author, date, title, and URL or pages. Your in-text citations stay tied to author and year, so readers can separate the sources fast.

Paywalled Newspaper Links

A paywall doesn’t change the citation. Use the URL that points to the article page. If you accessed the story through a database, your school may want a database name or a stable URL. Match your course rules for database sources.

Proofread Your Citation Like A Grader

APA grading is often mechanical. Small punctuation slips can cost points even when your research is solid. This checklist keeps you out of the usual trouble.

Order And Punctuation

• Author ends with a period.
• Date is in parentheses, then a period.
• Article title ends with a period.
• Newspaper name is italicized, then a comma if pages follow.
• URL sits at the end with no period after it.

Capitalization Rules

Article titles use sentence case. Newspaper names keep their published capitalization. If you paste a headline that’s in all caps, convert it to sentence case.

Italics Rules

Italicize the newspaper name. Don’t italicize the article title in a newspaper reference.

Fast Self-Check Table Before You Submit

Use this as a last pass. It’s built for quick spotting, not for memorizing rules.

If Your Source Is…	Your Reference Must End With…	Your Quote Citation Must Include…
Print newspaper	Pages (with section letters)	p. or pp. plus the page
Online newspaper page	URL	Author and year
No author listed	Title in author position	Short title and year
Two authors	Both names with &	Both names, or narrative + year
Three or more authors	List all authors in reference	et al. after first author
Story continues on later pages	All relevant pages listed	The page you quoted

Copy-Ready Citation Builder Steps

If you want a repeatable workflow you can run in under two minutes per source, use these steps each time.

1. Write the author line in the reference list format: last name, initials.
2. Add the date in parentheses: year, month, day. Then add a period.
3. Paste the article title and convert it to sentence case. End with a period.
4. Type the newspaper name in italics.
5. Add pages (print) or a URL (online).
6. Create the in-text citation from the same author and year.
7. If you used a direct quote from print, add the page with p. or pp.

Mini Examples You Can Model Without Copying

These are pattern-only examples. Swap in your source details and keep the punctuation positions the same.

Print Pattern

Author, A. A. (2026, February 27). Title of article in sentence case. Newspaper Name, A1, A6.

In-text: (Author, 2026) or Author (2026)

Quote: (Author, 2026, p. A1)

Online Pattern

Author, A. A. (2026, February 27). Title of article in sentence case. Newspaper Name. https://site.com/article

In-text: (Author, 2026) or Author (2026)

One Last Pass Before You Hit Submit

Scan your reference entry and ask two questions:

• Could a reader locate the exact article from this line?
• Does the in-text citation point to one, and only one, item in the reference list?

If both answers are yes, you’re done. Your citation is doing its job: making your source easy to verify, with formatting that won’t distract your reader.