On this page
Updated . Example details checked against The New York Times, November 8, 2003 (the MLA Handbook newspaper example); The New Yorker, December 21 and 28, 2015 issue, pp. 42-50 (the MLA Handbook magazine example).
The APA format
Pattern
Last name, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Headline in sentence case. Name of Newspaper, pages. URL
- Date with year, month and day for newspapers and weekly magazines; month only for monthly magazines.
- Headline in plain text and sentence case.
- Publication in italics and title case.
- Pages with no “p.” in the reference: 42–50. A magazine adds its volume and issue when they are printed.
A real example
Reference entry
Lewin, T. (2003, November 8). Disability requests reflect changes in SAT procedure. The New York Times.
In-text citation
(Lewin, 2003)
A magazine article, with pages
Reference entry
Kolbert, E. (2015, December 21). The siege of Miami. The New Yorker, 42–50.
In-text citation
(Kolbert, 2015, p. 44)
When details are missing
- No writer: the headline moves to the author position, and the citation uses a short headline in quotation marks: (“Disability Requests,” 2003).
- Online: end with the article’s URL.
- From a database: end after the pages, with no database name.
Common mistakes
- Year only. News articles take the full date in the reference: (2003, November 8).
- Italic headline. Only the publication is italic.
- A news website article as a web page. If the site is a newspaper or magazine, use this pattern with the publication in italics.
Or let Format do it.
Paste the article’s link and Format reads the headline, writer, paper and date from the page; it uses the Newspaper or Magazine article kind. Format writes the References entry and the in-text citation in APA 7, exactly as shown above, and builds the References page when you export to Word or PDF. MLA and APA are free.
Questions
How do I cite the date in the text?
Year only: (Lewin, 2003).
Is “The” part of the newspaper name?
Write the name as the paper does, The New York Times.
More citation guides
The same source in other styles
Similar sources in APA
Every source kind is on the APA page, and every style is on How to cite.