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 Harvard format
Pattern
Last name, Initial. (Year) ‘Headline of article’, Name of Newspaper, Day Month, p. #.
- Year in parentheses straight after the name, then the headline in single quotation marks with minimal capitals.
- Day and month after the newspaper; the year is already given, so it is not repeated.
- Page as p. 12 or pp. 42–50 for print.
- Online: end with Available at: URL (Accessed: 3 November 2026) in place of the page.
A real example
Reference list entry
Lewin, T. (2003) ‘Disability requests reflect changes in SAT procedure’, The New York Times, 8 November.
In-text citation
(Lewin, 2003)
A magazine article, with pages
Reference list entry
Kolbert, E. (2015) ‘The siege of Miami’, The New Yorker, 21 December, pp. 42–50.
In-text citation
(Kolbert, 2015, p. 44)
When details are missing
- No writer named: the newspaper takes the author position, in italics: The Daily Telegraph (2021) ‘Walking on wooden floors could help to generate power’, 2 September, p. 12. In the text: (The Daily Telegraph, 2021, p. 12).
- Read online, no page: leave the page out of the reference and the citation.
- A weekly or monthly magazine: the same pattern, with the date printed on the issue.
The rules for a missing author, date or page in every style are in no author, date or page.
Common mistakes
- Double quotation marks around the headline. Cite Them Right uses single quotation marks.
- The year again after the month. The year is in parentheses after the name; the date after the paper is day and month only.
- No access date for an online article. A URL always takes (Accessed: day month year).
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 Reference list entry and the in-text citation in Harvard, exactly as shown above, and builds the Reference list page when you export to Word or PDF. Harvard is part of Pro, $4 a month or $29 a year; MLA and APA are free.
Questions
Is the newspaper name in italics?
Yes. The headline is in single quotation marks; the paper is italic.
What if two articles by the same writer appeared in one year?
Add a, b to the year in the reference and the text: (Lewin, 2003a).
Is this the Harvard my university uses?
Format follows Cite Them Right, 13th edition. Some universities publish their own Harvard guide; check yours.
More citation guides
The same source in other styles
- Newspaper or magazine article in MLA 9
- Newspaper or magazine article in APA 7
- Newspaper or magazine article in Chicago
Similar sources in Harvard
Every source kind is on the Harvard page, and every style is on How to cite.