The pattern at a glance
- Online articleLast, First. "Headline of the Article." Newspaper Name, Day Mon. Year, URL.
- Print articleLast, First. "Headline." Newspaper Name, Day Mon. Year, p. A1.MLA's own example for a print section writes "Arts and Leisure sec., p. 5" in the location slot.
- In-text(Last) for online articles without pages, (Last A1) in print
The MLA elements of a news citation
In MLA's container model the article is the source and the newspaper is the container. That gives the order: author, "Title of Source.", Title of Container, date, location. For an online article the location is the URL; for print it is the page.
MLA treats news websites the same way as newspapers. NPR, BBC News or Reuters go in the container slot in italics, just like The Guardian. This is a difference from APA, which puts news websites into a separate webpage format.
Dates use the day-month-year order with abbreviated month names longer than four letters: 21 Oct. 2026, 4 June 2026, 25 Sept. 2026. If the article shows a time of posting, MLA allows you to add it, but the date alone is normally enough.
Print editions, sections and edition labels
If you read the paper copy, add the page in the location slot. Newspapers that number pages by section (A1, B4) keep the letter. When the article continues on a non-consecutive page, MLA writes the first page and a plus sign, for example p. A1+.
MLA's example of a section-based paper puts the section name before the page ("Arts and Leisure sec., p. 5"). The citation engine prints the section after the page, so for print citations that need a section, type it into the location by hand after copying the entry.
Quoting news fairly in an MLA paper
News articles often quote experts or summarise studies. When you use such a quotation, make clear in your sentence who said it and cite the article where you found it. If you can reach the study the article describes, read it and cite it too, because the article's summary is a second-hand account.
Opinion pieces, columns and editorials are cited with the same pattern; you may add a description such as Editorial after the title so readers know the piece expresses a view rather than reports news.
Field by field: MLA news form
Each field of the generator becomes one MLA element.
| Field | What to enter | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Reporter, inverted for the first name. | Byline. Remove roles such as "Arts correspondent". |
| Headline | Title of source, in quotation marks. | Article heading. |
| Newspaper or site | Title of container, italic, with "The" if the paper uses it. | Masthead. |
| Date | Day, month, year of publication. | Next to the byline. |
| URL or page | Location: the link for online, the page for print. | Address bar or print page. |
MLA news article examples
Two science stories from October 2026, cited from their online editions with the generator's engine.
Headline that starts with a quotation (The Guardian)
MLA 9th: Reference entry
Alberge, Dalya. “‘It’s Magic’: Scientists Rediscover How to Make Ancient Roman Colour-Changing Glass.” The Guardian, 25 Oct. 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/oct/25/scientists-rediscover-ancient-roman-colour-changing-glass.
In-text citation: (Alberge)
The headline already contains quoted words, so MLA turns them into single quotation marks inside the double quotation marks of the title. The British spelling "colour" is kept because it is the paper's own text.
Checked against the page itself (checked on 25 October 2026). From the Guardian Science feed: byline Dalya Alberge, 25 October 2026.
Reporter with three names (The New York Times)
MLA 9th: Reference entry
Brown, Taylor Mitchell. “Chimps Steal Less Often from Their Friends, Even When Offered Pineapple.” The New York Times, 23 Oct. 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/science/stealing-chimps-friends.html.
In-text citation: (Brown)
Taylor Mitchell Brown is inverted as Brown, Taylor Mitchell. MLA title case lowercases short prepositions such as "from" while capitalising "Their" and "Even".
Checked against the page itself (checked on 25 October 2026). From the New York Times Science feed: byline Taylor Mitchell Brown, 23 October 2026.
Formatted by the same citation engine that runs the generator above (citeproc-js with the official CSL style file). Italics follow the style.
MLA in-text citations for news articles
Online news has no page numbers, so the in-text citation is usually just the surname.
- Online article: (Alberge)
- Print article: (Brown A12)
- Name in the sentence: Alberge reports that the colour change depends on light direction; no parenthesis is needed when there is no page.
- No author: Shorten the headline: ("Chimps Steal").
- Two articles by one reporter: Add a short title: (Davis, "Bad Apple").
Common MLA news citation mistakes
- American date order. MLA writes 23 Oct. 2026, not October 23, 2026.
- Headline in italics. The headline takes quotation marks; the newspaper is italic.
- Adding the year in text. MLA in-text citations use names and pages, never the year alone.
- Citing the aggregator. If you read a story through Google News or Apple News, cite the original paper and its URL.
MLA newspaper citation FAQ
How do I cite an online news article in MLA 9?
Last, First. "Headline." Newspaper Name, Day Mon. Year, URL. For example the Guardian example above ends with 25 Oct. 2026 and the article link.
Do I italicise the newspaper name in MLA?
Yes. The newspaper or news website is the container and goes in italics.
Should I keep https:// in the URL?
MLA 9 allows dropping the protocol, and the generator keeps it. Either is acceptable if you are consistent; check what your instructor prefers.
What if there is no byline?
Start the entry with the headline in quotation marks and use a shortened headline in the in-text citation.
Style guides used on this page
Rules on this page were checked against these pages on 25 October 2026.