APA Citation Generator

Free APA News Citation Generator — APA 7th Edition 2026

Generate citations for online news articles from news sites like BBC, CNN, Reuters, and local newspapers. Paste a news URL for instant auto-fill.

Quick Answer

An APA news citation follows the format: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. News Website. URL. For online-only news sites, italicize the article title. For print-associated newspapers, italicize the newspaper name instead.

How to Cite a News Article in APA 7th Edition

Under APA 7th edition, news articles retrieved online require the author, exact publication date, article title, news website name or newspaper name, and the URL. No publisher location or retrieval dates are needed.

The basic format for an online-only news article is:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. News Website. URL

APA News Citation Examples

News Source TypeAPA 7th Edition Citation
Online-only News Site (BBC, CNN)Jones, L. (2024, May 15). Climate targets falling behind. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/article-123
Online Newspaper (NYT, Guardian)Smith, R. (2023, November 2). Election trends in metropolitan areas. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/...
No Author (News Site)New technology trends for 2024. (2023, December 20). TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/tech-trends

Key Rules for Newspaper and News Citations

  • Exact Dates: News articles are published frequently, so always provide the full publication date: (Year, Month Day).
  • Sentence Case: Capitalize only the first word of the article title and any proper nouns.
  • Source formatting: Pay attention to whether you should italicize the article title (for online news portals like Reuters/BBC) or the publication title (for traditional newspapers like Chicago Tribune/The Guardian).
  • No URL period: Do not add a period after the URL at the end of the citation.

Explore Our Other Generators

APA Website CitationCite websites, blogs, and standard web pages.APA Journal CitationCite academic journal articles with DOI support.APA PDF CitationCite reports, white papers, and PDF documents.APA Social Media CitationCite tweets, Instagram posts, and Facebook posts.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I cite an online news article in APA format?

To cite an online news article in APA 7th edition, use: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. News Website. URL. For example: Jones, L. (2024, May 15). Climate targets falling behind. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/...

What is the difference between a news website article and a journal article in APA?

For news articles from websites without a print edition (like BBC News, CNN, or HuffPost), you italicize the article title and write the news website name in plain text. For articles from newspapers with print editions (like The New York Times, The Guardian), you write the article title in plain text and italicize the newspaper name. This generator automatically formats according to these specifications.

What if a news article has no author?

If there is no individual author identified, move the title of the article to the author position: Title of article. (Year, Month Day). News Website. URL. Do not use the news organization name as the author unless they are explicitly credited as the authoring entity.

Do I need to include a retrieval date for online news articles?

No. Under APA 7th edition guidelines, retrieval dates (e.g., "Retrieved from...") are not required for online news articles because they are archived permanently, unlike wikis or real-time datasets that change continuously.

Is this APA news citation generator free?

Yes, this tool is 100% free with no registration required. Paste any news URL for auto-fill or enter the details manually.