PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Online news article

How to Cite an Online News Article in APA 7 (CNN, BBC, NPR)

In APA 7, a story from a news website with no daily or weekly newspaper behind it, like CNN, BBC News, NPR, or Reuters, is cited as a webpage: the author, the full date, the headline in italics and sentence case, the site name, and the URL. A story from a newspaper's website, like The New York Times or The Seattle Times, is cited as a newspaper article instead, with the headline plain and the newspaper's name in italics. Either way, the in-text citation is the author's last name and the year: (McPhillips, 2026).

The format

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Headline of the story. Site Name. https://xxxx

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Paste the story's URL into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA knows which major outlets are newspapers and which are news websites: a CNN, BBC News, or NPR story comes back as a Webpage with the headline in italics, and a New York Times or Guardian story comes back as a Newspaper article with the paper's name in italics. Check three things before you save. Match the headline to the one on the page, since sites give search engines and social media their own wording. Check the site name: use the name the site goes by on the page, like BBC News or NPR. And check the reporters' names and the date against the byline.

Adding a news website story by hand? Choose Webpage, then fill in the reporters, the publication date, the headline in sentence case as the page title, the site name, and the URL. For a newspaper's website, choose Newspaper instead (see how to cite a newspaper article). PERRLA italicizes the right part either way.

Look up
Paste a URL, get the reference

https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/21/health/measles-pennsylvania-undercount-cdc

McPhillips, D. (2026, October 21). One US measles outbreak is proving particularly deadly. Here’s why. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/21/health/measles-pennsylvania-undercount-cdc

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. First: news website or newspaper?

Ask one question: is there a daily or weekly newspaper behind this site? If not, the story is a webpage on a news website. CNN, BBC News, NPR, Reuters, HuffPost, Vox, Bloomberg, and local TV station sites all fall here. If there is, like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, USA Today, or your local paper, use the newspaper format, even though you read it online.

The choice changes what goes in italics. A webpage italicizes the headline. A newspaper article italicizes the newspaper's name and leaves the headline plain.

2. Author

Give each reporter's last name and initials, with an ampersand (&) before the last one. Leave off titles and roles printed under the name, like "Digital health editor" or "Dr."

Roberts, M.

If the story credits no one, the headline moves to the front of the reference. Don't use the site's name as the author unless the site itself is credited.

3. Date

Give the full date the story was published: the year, a comma, then the month and day, in parentheses.

(2026, October 20).

Some sites show a relative time, like "1 day ago," instead of a date. Work out the calendar date the story went up, and use that. If a story was updated on a later day and the version you read is the update, use the update date.

4. Headline

For a news website, put the headline in italics and in sentence case: capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. End it with a period, unless it ends with a question mark.

Can a simple photo of your face reveal how ill you are?

Copy the headline from the story page. The title in your browser tab or a share preview is often a different version: this BBC story's tab says "one photo," not "a simple photo."

5. Site name

Give the name of the news website in plain text (not italics), then a period. Use the name the site goes by, which isn't always the company's full name.

BBC News.

If the author and the site name are the same, leave the site name out so it doesn't appear twice.

6. URL

End with the story's URL, with no period after it and no "Retrieved from." Trim tracking extras after a question mark, like ?utm_source=, when the link works without them.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6lyexv93pkdo

News stories don't need a retrieval date. That's only for pages built to change all the time, like a live tracker.

Examples

A CNN story (news website)

A CNN health story on a deadly measles outbreak in Pennsylvania. CNN has no newspaper behind it, so it's a webpage: the headline is italic and CNN is plain.

  • Parenthetical citation(McPhillips, 2026, para. 2)
  • Narrative citationMcPhillips (2026, para. 2)

A BBC News story

A BBC News story by its digital health editor on an AI tool that estimates survival from a photo of a patient's face. The page shows a relative time, like "2 days ago," instead of a date. The story went up on October 20, 2026. Her job title stays out of the reference, and the site name is BBC News.

  • Parenthetical citation(Roberts, 2026)
  • Narrative citationRoberts (2026)

An NPR story

An NPR web story on adult measles immunity. NPR is a radio network with no newspaper, so its web stories are webpages too. The browser tab says "Do adults need another measles shot?" Use the headline on the page. This story also aired on Morning Edition; if you listened to the broadcast instead of reading the page, cite the radio segment.

  • Parenthetical citation(Godoy, 2026)
  • Narrative citationGodoy (2026)

A story from a newspaper's website

A Seattle Times story on an early flu season in Washington, read on seattletimes.com. The Seattle Times is a daily newspaper, so this is a newspaper article: the headline is plain and the paper's name is italic.

  • Parenthetical citation(Takahama, 2026, para. 3)
  • Narrative citationTakahama (2026, para. 3)

In-text citations

In-text citations look the same for news websites and newspapers: the author's last name and the year, never the month or day.

  • One author: (McPhillips, 2026) or McPhillips (2026)
  • Two authors: both names every time: (Author & Author, 2026), or Author and Author (2026) in your sentence
  • Three or more authors: the first reporter's name and et al., starting with the first citation
  • A quote: news stories have no page numbers, so count paragraphs: (McPhillips, 2026, para. 2)
  • No author on a news website: the first few words of the headline in title case and in italics, because the headline is italic in the reference, then the year
  • No author on a newspaper's site: the first few words of the headline in title case and in quotation marks, because the headline is plain in the reference

Common mistakes

  • McPhillips, D. (2026, October 21). One US measles outbreak is proving particularly deadly. Here’s why. CNN.McPhillips, D. (2026, October 21). One US measles outbreak is proving particularly deadly. Here’s why. CNN.CNN isn't a newspaper, so the story is a webpage: the headline is italic and the site name is plain.
  • Takahama, E. (2026, October 19). Early flu season lands in WA as COVID numbers also rise. The Seattle Times.Takahama, E. (2026, October 19). Early flu season lands in WA as COVID numbers also rise. The Seattle Times.A newspaper's website keeps the newspaper format. Generators that treat every link as a webpage italicize the wrong part.
  • Roberts, M. (2026, October 20). Can one photo of your face reveal how ill you are? BBC.Roberts, M. (2026, October 20). Can a simple photo of your face reveal how ill you are? BBC News.Take the headline from the story page, not the search or share title, and use the site name the site goes by.
  • Godoy, M. (2026, October 12). Here's what to know if you're unsure about your measles immunity status. NPR. Retrieved October 21, 2026, from https://www.npr.org/...Godoy, M. (2026, October 12). Here's what to know if you're unsure about your measles immunity status. NPR. https://www.npr.org/...News stories have a fixed publication date, so they don't take a retrieval date. APA 7 also dropped "Retrieved from" before plain URLs.
  • Roberts, M. (2026). Can a simple photo of your face reveal how ill you are?Roberts, M. (2026, October 20). Can a simple photo of your face reveal how ill you are?Stories on news websites take the full date in the reference. The year alone goes only in the in-text citation.

Quick checklist

  • Decide first: news website (webpage) or newspaper's site (newspaper article)
  • Every reporter, with no job titles or "Dr."
  • The full date the story was published
  • The headline from the story page, in sentence case
  • News website: headline italic, site name plain. Newspaper: headline plain, paper's name italic
  • The URL, with no retrieval date and no period after it

Questions students ask

Is CNN a newspaper in APA 7?

No. CNN is a news website with no daily or weekly newspaper behind it, so a CNN story is cited as a webpage, with the headline in italics and CNN as the site name. The same goes for BBC News, NPR, Reuters, HuffPost, Bloomberg, and Vox.

How do I cite an article from a newspaper's website?

Use the newspaper article format, even though you read it online: author, full date, headline, the newspaper's name in italics, and the URL. That covers sites like nytimes.com, washingtonpost.com, theguardian.com, and your local paper's site.

How do I cite a local TV news station's website?

As a webpage on a news website. A TV station has no newspaper behind it, so give the reporter, the full date, the headline in italics, the station's site name as it appears on the page, and the URL.

What about an AP or Reuters story?

It depends on where you read it. On apnews.com or reuters.com, it's a webpage on a news website. Printed in or posted on a newspaper's site, it's a newspaper article with that newspaper as the source. Credit the reporters named in the byline either way.

How do I cite a video on a news website?

Cite it as an online video, with [Video] after the title, the news site's name, and the URL. Use the webpage format only when you're citing the written story that goes with it.

Does an online news article need a retrieval date?

No. A news story has a publication date and stays put, so APA 7 leaves the retrieval date out. Retrieval dates are for pages designed to change over time, like a live case tracker.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.10–8.11, 8.14, 8.17, 8.28, 9.8, 9.12, 9.14–9.16, 9.19, 9.33–9.36, 10.1, and 10.16, and the APA Style website's webpage and newspaper article reference pages, including their lists of news websites and newspaper websites. Each example story was opened on October 21, 2026, to confirm its byline, headline, publication date, and URL.

PERRLA tells a news website from a newspaper for you and italicizes the right part of the reference.

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