How to Cite a Newspaper Article in MLA 9th Edition

Quick Answer

MLA 9 newspaper article format (print):

Author. "Title of Article." Newspaper Name, Day Month Year, sec. or p. number.

MLA 9 newspaper article format (online):

Author. "Title of Article." Newspaper Name, Day Month Year, URL.

Worked example (online):

Cooper, Helene. "U.S. Sends Aid Flights to Aid Hurricane Recovery." The New York Times, 14 Sept. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/09/14/us/hurricane-aid-flights.html.

In-text citation: (Cooper) for online articles with no page numbers; (Cooper A12) when a print page number is available.

Three rules that catch most people out:

• No "Retrieved from" and no access date by default. MLA 9 only requires an access date when the source is undated or likely to change (MLA Handbook 9th ed., 5.108). Most newspaper articles do not need one.
• Drop page numbers for online articles. If you read the article on the web, there are no print pages to cite. Use the URL as the location and omit "p." or "pp." entirely.
• Section letters and page numbers travel together. For a print article on page A12, write "p. A12" - one element, not "sec. A, p. 12". The newspaper's own pagination is the standard.

Need to format dozens of sources at once? Paste any newspaper URL into the AllCitations MLA 9 generator to get a correctly formatted Works Cited entry in seconds, then export to BibTeX or RIS for Zotero or Mendeley.

The MLA Core Elements for a Newspaper Article

MLA 9th edition does not provide a separate template for newspaper articles. Instead, every source uses the same nine core elements and you fill in the ones that apply (MLA Handbook 9th ed., 5.1 to 5.110). For a typical newspaper article, the relevant elements are:

1. Author.
2. "Title of Source."
3. Title of Container,
4. Publication date,
5. Location.

The other four core elements (other contributors, version, number, publisher) almost never apply to newspaper articles, so you skip them.

The result for a print newspaper article is:

Author. "Title of Article." Newspaper Name, Day Month Year, p. number.

For an online article it becomes:

Author. "Title of Article." Newspaper Name, Day Month Year, URL.

A few principles guide every newspaper entry:

• Author is the byline. If the article has no byline, skip the author element and start with the title. Do not write "Anonymous" or "Staff" as the author. If the byline names a wire service ("By the Associated Press"), see Special Cases below.
• Title of the article goes in quotation marks and uses title case. Capitalise principal words, but not articles, prepositions, or coordinating conjunctions unless they are the first or last word of the title.
• Title of the newspaper is italicised and uses title case. MLA 9 keeps the leading "The" if the masthead includes it: write The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian. Alphabetise by the first significant word, ignoring "The".
• Date uses MLA's day-month-year format. Months longer than four letters are abbreviated: 14 Sept. 2024, 7 Mar. 2025, but 4 May 2024 and 11 June 2025.
• Location is the URL for online articles, or the page number (with section letter, if any) for print. Include both if the article appeared in print and you are also linking to the online version, separated by a comma.

For a comparison with the equivalent academic source, see our guide on How to Cite a Journal Article in MLA 9. For broader context on MLA's container model, the MLA 9 generator overview walks through how the same nine elements adapt to every source type.

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Worked Examples

The eight examples below cover the most common newspaper scenarios, from a standard online news story to wire-service republications. Each shows the Works Cited entry and the matching in-text citation.

1. Online Newspaper Article with One Author

The most common case. A modern news article you read on the newspaper's website, with a clear byline and a publication date.

Works-cited entry:

Cooper, Helene. "U.S. Sends Aid Flights to Aid Hurricane Recovery." The New York Times, 14 Sept. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/09/14/us/hurricane-aid-flights.html.

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Cooper)
• Narrative: Cooper reports that more than forty C-17 flights had landed in Tampa within seventy-two hours of landfall.

Online articles do not have stable page numbers, so the in-text citation is just the author's surname. Paragraph numbers can be added when an article uses them (par. 4), but newspaper articles rarely do. Do not invent paragraph numbers by counting them yourself.

The URL omits the "https://" prefix per MLA 9's recommendation (5.93). Keep the rest of the URL exactly as it appears, including any tracking parameters; do not edit them out.

2. Print Newspaper Article with a Section and Page

For a printed article you read in the physical newspaper, include the page number with its section letter as it appears on the page itself.

Works-cited entry:

Sengupta, Somini. "Drought Tightens Its Grip on the American West." The New York Times, 22 July 2023, p. A1.

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Sengupta A1)
• Narrative: Sengupta describes a third consecutive year of below-average snowpack in the Colorado Basin (A1).

If the article jumps across pages, give the range: "pp. A1, A14" for a story that starts on A1 and continues on A14. Use a comma between non-consecutive pages and a hyphen for a continuous range (pp. A1-A4).

If your newspaper uses numbered sections rather than lettered sections, follow the masthead's own format: "sec. 1, p. 12" if that is what the paper prints, or simply "p. 12" if there is no section identifier.

3. Newspaper Article with Two Authors

When a story is co-bylined, list both authors. The first appears in last-name-first format; the second in first-name-last-name format, joined by "and."

Works-cited entry:

Lipton, Eric, and Coral Davenport. "E.P.A. Issues New Rule on Power Plant Emissions." The New York Times, 11 May 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/05/11/climate/epa-power-plant-rule.html.

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Lipton and Davenport)
• Narrative: Lipton and Davenport note that the rule was issued under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act.

For three or more authors, use the first author followed by "et al." in both the entry and the in-text citation: (Lipton et al.).

4. Newspaper Article with No Author

Many short news items, briefs, and unsigned reports have no byline. In that case, skip the author element entirely and begin the entry with the title. In the in-text citation, use a shortened version of the title in quotation marks.

Works-cited entry:

"Markets Close Lower After Federal Reserve Decision." The Wall Street Journal, 18 Mar. 2025, www.wsj.com/markets/markets-close-lower-fed-decision-2025.

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: ("Markets Close")
• Narrative: The Dow finished the session down 1.4 percent ("Markets Close").

The shortened title in the in-text citation should begin with the same word the Works Cited entry begins with, so the reader can find the entry in the alphabetised list. Do not write "Anonymous" or "Staff" as a placeholder; MLA 9 explicitly drops the author element when there is no named author (5.6).

5. Editorial or Unsigned Opinion Piece

Editorials are usually unsigned because they represent the institutional voice of the editorial board. Cite them like any other unsigned article, but add a label at the end of the entry to mark them as editorials.

Works-cited entry:

"The Case for a National Right-to-Repair Law." The Washington Post, 28 Aug. 2024, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/28/right-to-repair-editorial/. Editorial.

In-text citation: ("Right-to-Repair")

The "Editorial." label sits at the end as an optional element under MLA 9's "any other element you think is relevant" rule (5.111). It tells your reader that the piece represents the paper's editorial board rather than a reported story or a guest column.

6. Op-Ed or Guest Essay

Op-eds, guest essays, and named columns have a byline and are cited like any other newspaper article. You do not need to add an "Op-ed." label unless your instructor specifically asks for one, but doing so is allowed and helps disambiguate from reporting.

Works-cited entry:

Krugman, Paul. "What Markets Get Wrong About Inflation." The New York Times, 6 June 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/opinion/krugman-inflation-markets.html.

In-text citations:

• Parenthetical: (Krugman)
• Narrative: Krugman argues that breakeven rates have decoupled from realised CPI for nearly eighteen months.

If you want to flag the piece as opinion writing, append "Opinion." or "Op-ed." at the end:

Krugman, Paul. "What Markets Get Wrong About Inflation." The New York Times, 6 June 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/opinion/krugman-inflation-markets.html. Op-ed.

7. Letter to the Editor

A letter to the editor is treated like a short signed contribution. Include the writer's name as the author, and add "Letter." at the end.

Works-cited entry:

Marquez, Daniel. "On Solar Permitting." The Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2025, www.latimes.com/opinion/letters/solar-permitting-2025-02-03. Letter.

In-text citation: (Marquez)

If the letter has no title (some papers run them under a generic header like "Letters to the Editor"), use a brief description in place of a title, without quotation marks: "Letter on solar permitting."

8. Article Accessed Through a Database

When you read a newspaper article through a library database such as ProQuest, NewsBank, or Factiva, the article is the source and the database is its container. MLA 9 treats this as a source nested in a second container: the original newspaper is the first container, the database is the second.

Works-cited entry:

Friedman, Thomas L. "Globalization, Now and Forever." The New York Times, 17 Apr. 2018, p. A23. ProQuest, www.proquest.com/docview/2027894301.

In-text citation: (Friedman A23)

Notice the second container (ProQuest) is italicised, just like the first. The database URL serves as the location for the second container. Do not delete the original print page number; if it is available in the database record, include it.

If the database provides a stable DOI (rare for newspapers but possible for syndicated archive content), use the DOI instead of the database URL.

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Special Cases

Wire-Service Articles (AP, Reuters, Bloomberg)

Articles credited to a wire service (Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse) and republished by a newspaper should be cited under the newspaper that ran them, with the wire service named in the byline position.

Associated Press. "Federal Reserve Holds Interest Rates Steady." The Boston Globe, 14 Mar. 2024, www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03/14/business/fed-rates-steady/.

In-text citation: (Associated Press)

If the byline reads "By Jane Smith, Associated Press," treat Smith as the author and add "Associated Press" as a label or simply omit it. The MLA Handbook does not require you to attribute syndication beyond the named author.

If you cite the same wire-service article as run by two different newspapers, those are two separate Works Cited entries. They are distinct sources because they were edited and headlined separately by each paper.

Regional or Smaller-Circulation Newspapers

For nationally known papers (The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Guardian), the city of publication is unnecessary and conventionally omitted. For lesser-known regional or local papers, MLA 9 recommends adding the city in square brackets after the title (5.30), unless the city is part of the masthead.

Holcomb, Marcia. "School Board Approves Math Curriculum Overhaul." The Sun-Sentinel [Fort Lauderdale], 9 Sept. 2024, www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/sun-curriculum.

For The Boston Globe or The Cincinnati Enquirer, the city is in the title, so do not duplicate it in brackets. The bracket convention is for ambiguous papers like The Sun, The Herald, or The Tribune that exist in many cities.

Articles with Updated or Corrected Content

Online newspaper articles are often updated after first publication. MLA 9 recommends citing the version you actually used, with its publication date. If the article carries both a published-on and a last-updated stamp, prefer the publication date and add an access date as an optional element if the content has materially changed:

Goldstein, Matthew. "S.E.C. Charges Broker With Insider Trading." The New York Times, 3 Apr. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/04/03/business/sec-broker-insider-trading.html. Accessed 7 May 2026.

If the article carries an explicit "Updated 11 a.m." note that fundamentally changed the story (and you are quoting from the updated version), use the updated date as the publication date. The MLA Style Center's online guidance (mlastylecenter.org) treats this as a standard application of the "version" element when authors flag it explicitly.

Articles in a Non-English Newspaper

Cite the original title as it appears, in title case for the language used. MLA 9 does not require an English translation but allows you to provide one in square brackets when it would help your reader (5.31).

Ferraro, Antonio. "La Ricerca Sulla Memoria di Lavoro [Research on Working Memory]." Corriere della Sera, 17 Feb. 2025, www.corriere.it/cronache/2025/02/17/la-ricerca-sulla-memoria.

For a non-Roman script, transliterate the title using the Library of Congress romanisation tables, then add the English translation in brackets. Do not translate the newspaper title.

Breaking News and Articles Without a Date

If a piece of breaking news was filed without a clear date stamp (rare but possible for live blog entries or dispatch pages that aggregate continuously), omit the date and add an access date at the end.

Live Updates Team. "Live Updates: Pacific Storm System." The Seattle Times, www.seattletimes.com/weather/live-updates-pacific-storm/. Accessed 5 May 2026.

The access date is the date you read the source. MLA 9 only requires it when the publication date is missing or when the content is unstable enough to make the access date relevant (5.108). Newspaper articles with normal datelines do not need one.

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Print vs Online: When the Format Changes

The biggest decision in citing a newspaper article is whether you are citing the print version or the online version. The differences are not cosmetic; they change which elements appear in the entry.

If you read the article in both forms (perhaps you printed it from the website), cite the version you read. If you genuinely consulted both, you can include both: "p. A12. NYTimes.com, www.nytimes.com/...". This is allowed but rarely necessary.

A common student error is to cite an online article as if it had a print page number ("p. A1") because the article happened to also run in print. Unless you actually saw the print version, do not include the print page number; cite what you read.

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Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Writing the date in month-day-year order. MLA uses day-month-year: "14 Sept. 2024" not "Sept. 14, 2024." This is one of the most frequent slips when students copy a citation generator's output that defaults to APA's month-day order.

Forgetting to abbreviate long month names. MLA abbreviates months longer than four letters: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. Keep May, June, and July spelled out. So "14 Sept. 2024" is correct, "14 May 2024" is correct, "14 September 2024" is not.

Using "Retrieved from" or an "Accessed on" line for stable articles. MLA 9 dropped the routine "Retrieved from" phrasing years ago, and access dates are only required when the source is undated or expected to change. Adding one to a normal news article is a habit imported from older APA guidance.

Adding the print page number to an online citation. If you read the article on the web, there is no page number to cite. The URL replaces the page number; including both doubles up the location element.

Italicising the article title or putting the newspaper name in quotation marks. MLA reverses what students sometimes assume. The article (the source) is in quotation marks; the newspaper (the container) is italicised. Do not flip them.

Writing "The" as part of the alphabetisation key. The New York Times is alphabetised under N, not T. Keep "The" in the entry when it appears on the masthead, but ignore it for ordering.

Including the author's middle initial inconsistently. If the byline shows "Eric Lipton" with no middle initial, do not insert one. If it shows "Eric L. Lipton," include the initial. MLA mirrors the source.

Using a section identifier that isn't on the page. If the printed page number is just "12" with no letter, write "p. 12" - do not invent "sec. A" or "sec. 1" because the article is on the front of the National section. Use what the page itself prints.

Treating a wire service as the publisher. The Associated Press is a byline (or author), not a publisher. The publisher of the article you read is the newspaper that ran it, and MLA 9 omits the publisher when it duplicates the title of the container, so you usually leave it off altogether.

Using a database URL when a stable URL exists. If the article has a permanent URL on the newspaper's own website, prefer that over a database link that may require a login. Save the database location for the second container only when you genuinely accessed the article through the database.

For a deeper dive into MLA's container model and how the same rules adapt across source types, see the MLA 9 generator page, which walks through every core element with switch-case examples.

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Quick-Reference Table

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Tools and Resources

• AllCitations MLA 9 Generator: Paste any newspaper URL and get a correctly formatted Works Cited entry, including the right handling of online dates, missing authors, and database containers. Exports to BibTeX or RIS for Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote.
• The MLA Style Center: The Modern Language Association's free reference for the 9th edition Handbook, including a search-able Q&A archive that covers many of the edge cases above.
• NewsBank and ProQuest: Common library databases for accessing back issues of newspapers when you need a print page number for an article you cannot find online.
• ICANN WHOIS: Useful for verifying the publisher of an unfamiliar regional newspaper when you need to add the city in brackets.

You can explore all the citation styles supported by AllCitations on our citation styles page, and compare MLA against other humanities-friendly styles like Chicago and Turabian.

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Related MLA 9 Citation Guides

• How to Cite a Journal Article in MLA 9
• How to Cite a Book in MLA 9
• How to Cite a Website in MLA 9
• How to Cite a YouTube Video
• How to Cite a Journal Article in APA 7