Chicago / Turabian Newspaper Citation

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How to reference a Newspaper using the Chicago Manual of Style

The most basic entry for a newspaper consists of the author name(s), article title, newspaper name, and publication date.

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Newspaper Name, Publication Date.

Smith, John. “Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 2, 2009.

The first author’s name should be reversed, with a comma being placed after the last name and a period after the first name (or any middle name). The name should not be abbreviated and should be written exactly as it appears in the newspaper. Titles and affiliations associated with the author should be omitted. A suffix, such as a roman numeral or Jr./Sr. should appear after the author’s given name, preceded by a comma.

For an article written by two or more authors, list them in order as they appear in the newspaper. Only the first author’s name should be reversed, while the others are written in normal order. Separate author names by a comma.

Smith, John, and Jane Doe. “Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 2, 2009.

The full article title, which is followed by a period, should be placed within quotation marks. Place the period within the quotation marks. Although Chicago traditionally uses the headline style of capitalizing the first letter of each word in the title, sentence style is also acceptable. Be consistent in your bibliography in using either style.

The article title is followed by the name of the newspaper, which is italicized and followed by a comma. Omit any introductory articles (e.g. A, An, The) from the newspaper name. If the publication city is not in the newspaper name, add it, in parentheses (and italics, if a North American newspaper), to the end of the newspaper name. If the publication city shares its name with other cities or the location of the publication city is unclear, include the state/province name, in parentheses and italics, after the city within the newspaper name.

Smith, John. “Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII.” Star Ledger (Newark), February 2, 2009.

Smith, John. “Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII.” Ottawa (IL) Daily Times, February 2, 2009.

Smith, John. “Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII.” Guardian (Manchester), February 2, 2009.

Complete the citation by giving the complete publication date of the newspaper in the month-day-year format, followed by a period.

If an edition of the newspaper is listed, include it at the end of the citation. Place the edition, preceded by a comma, after the the publication date, but before the period that ends the citation.

Smith, John. “Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 2, 2009, early edition.

If the newspaper has multiple sections, indicate the section the article was found in. Place the section, preceded by a comma and the text “sec.”, after the publication date (or the edition, if there is one), but before the period that ends the citation.

Smith, John. “Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 2, 2009, early edition, sec. A.

If the article was published online, include the web address of the article, and then place the word “accessed”, along with the date on which you accessed the website (written in the format of “month day, year”) in parentheses. Conclude the citation with a period after the parentheses. For an article found in a database, cite it the same way you would an article published online: place the database URL in place of the website URL and cite the date on which you accessed the article.

Smith, John. “Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 2, 2009. http://www.post-gazette.com/news/super_bowl_xliii.html (accessed February 21, 2009).

Smith, John. “Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 2, 2009. http://www.lexisnexis.com (accessed February 21, 2009).

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