How to Cite an Online News Article in MLA 9

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Paste the story's URL into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA reads the page and fills in the reporter, the date, the headline, and the site's name, then puts the finished entry on your Works Cited page in alphabetical order, hanging indent and all. A CNN, BBC News, or NPR story comes back as a Webpage, and a story from a major newspaper's site, like The New York Times or The Guardian, comes back as a Newspaper article. 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 Page Title, the Website Name, the Publication Date, and the URL (Web address). For a newspaper's website, choose Newspaper, pick Newspaper article and A single published article, and fill in the Article Title and the Newspaper Name instead (see how to cite a newspaper article). Type the headline the way the site prints it: PERRLA puts it in title case and writes the date day-month-year.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. News website or newspaper? Same format

Here's the good news: MLA doesn't make you decide. A story on a news website like CNN, BBC News, NPR, or Reuters and a story on a newspaper's website like The Seattle Times or The New York Times follow one pattern. The story is a short work, so its headline goes in quotation marks. The site is the container that holds it, so its name goes in italics.

"Early Flu Season Lands in WA as COVID Numbers Also Rise." The Seattle Times,

If you've used APA, this is the big change. APA cites a CNN story as a webpage with the headline in italics. MLA treats every news site the same way.

2. Author

Start with the reporter's last name, a comma, and their first name as the byline prints it. End with a period. Leave off job titles printed with the name, like "Digital health editor."

McPhillips, Deidre.

Two reporters: invert only the first name, then write and and the second reporter's name in normal order. Three or more: give the first reporter, a comma, and et al.

No reporter named? Start the entry with the headline. Don't use the outlet as the author: CNN or the BBC is the container, not the writer. The same goes for a story credited only to a news agency like The Associated Press.

3. Headline

Put the headline in quotation marks and capitalize it in title case, even though news sites print headlines in sentence case. The period goes inside the closing quotation mark.

"One US Measles Outbreak Is Proving Particularly Deadly. Here’s Why."

If the headline ends with a question mark, keep it and add no period: "Can a Simple Photo of Your Face Reveal How Ill You Are?" MLA title case keeps prepositions lowercase in the middle of a title, however long they are (about, over, across).

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."

4. Site name

The news site is the container, so its name goes in italics, followed by a comma. Use the name the site goes by on the page, which isn't always the company's full name.

BBC News,

You can usually skip the publisher. MLA leaves it out for newspapers and for a site named after the company that runs it, like CNN (Cable News Network) or NPR (National Public Radio).

5. Date

Give the full date the story was published, written day, month, year, with no commas inside it. Abbreviate every month except May, June, and July (Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.).

20 Oct. 2026,

Some sites show a relative time, like "2 days ago," instead of a date. Work out the calendar date the story went up, and use that. If the story was updated and the version you read is the update, use the update date.

6. URL

End with the story's URL and a period. The https:// comes off the front.

www.npr.org/2026/10/12/nx-s1-5991904/measles-vaccination-status-outbreak-extra-dose.

Trim the tracking extras news sites tack on, like ?utm_source=, so the URL points to the story and nothing else. A dated news story doesn't need an access date.

Examples

A CNN story (news website)

A CNN health story on a deadly measles outbreak in Pennsylvania, read on cnn.com. In MLA, the headline goes in quotation marks and CNN goes in italics, the same as a newspaper.

• In-text citation(McPhillips)
• Narrative citationAs McPhillips reports, …

A BBC News story with a question for a headline

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 instead of a date; the story went up on 20 October 2026. Her job title stays out of the entry, the headline keeps its question mark with no added period, and the site name is BBC News.

• In-text citation(Roberts)
• Narrative citationRoberts reports that …

An NPR story

An NPR web story on adult measles immunity. The browser tab says "Do adults need another measles shot?" Use the headline on the page. In MLA title case, about stays lowercase because it's a preposition. This story also aired on Morning Edition; if you listened to the broadcast instead of reading the page, cite the radio segment.

• In-text citation(Godoy)
• Narrative citationGodoy explains that …

A story from a newspaper's website

A Seattle Times story on an early flu season in Washington, read on seattletimes.com. It's built exactly like the CNN entry: headline in quotation marks, the paper's name in italics with its "The," then the date and URL.

• In-text citation(Takahama)
• Narrative citationAs Takahama reports, …

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for an online news story is the reporter's last name. Online stories have no page numbers, so there's nothing to add after it.

• One author: (McPhillips)
• Two authors: both last names joined by and: (Author and Author)
• Three or more authors: the first reporter and et al.
• No author: a shortened version of the headline in quotation marks and title case, starting with the headline's first word (leave off an opening A, An, or The).
• Name in your sentence: when nothing is left to put in parentheses, leave them off: McPhillips reports that the outbreak has been unusually deadly.

Don't count paragraphs to make up a location. MLA uses par. or section numbers only when the page itself numbers them. If you cite two stories by the same reporter, add a short version of each headline in quotation marks after the name and a comma.

Common mistakes

• McPhillips, Deidre. One US Measles Outbreak Is Proving Particularly Deadly. Here’s Why. CNN, 21 Oct. 2026,McPhillips, Deidre. "One US Measles Outbreak Is Proving Particularly Deadly. Here’s Why." CNN, 21 Oct. 2026,A news story is a short work inside a larger site. The headline goes in quotation marks, and the site's name goes in italics.
• (McPhillips, 2026, para. 2)(McPhillips)That's APA. MLA in-text citations don't take the year, and you don't count paragraphs on a page that doesn't number them.
• Roberts, M. (2026, October 20). Can a simple photo of your face reveal how ill you are? BBC News.Roberts, Michelle. "Can a Simple Photo of Your Face Reveal How Ill You Are?" BBC News, 20 Oct. 2026,That's APA again. MLA spells out the first name, puts the headline in quotation marks and title case, and moves the date after the site name, day first.
• Roberts, Michelle. "Can One Photo of Your Face Reveal How Ill You Are?" BBC,Roberts, Michelle. "Can a Simple Photo of Your Face Reveal How Ill You Are?" BBC News,Take the headline from the story page, not the browser tab or share preview, and use the site name the page shows.
• CNN. "One US Measles Outbreak Is Proving Particularly Deadly. Here’s Why."McPhillips, Deidre. "One US Measles Outbreak Is Proving Particularly Deadly. Here’s Why."The news outlet is the container, not the author. Credit the reporter in the byline, or start with the headline if no one is named.

Quick checklist

• Reporter's name inverted, full first name as printed, no job titles
• No reporter named? Start with the headline
• Headline from the story page, in quotation marks and title case
• Site or newspaper name in italics, whether it's CNN or a daily paper
• Date as day, abbreviated month, year
• URL without https://, ending with a period

Questions students ask

Related guides

• How to Cite a Newspaper Article in MLA 9

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 2 (titles and capitalization), chapter 5 (the core elements, containers, when to omit a publisher, and optional access dates), and chapter 6 (in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center pages "How to Cite an Online Work," "How do I cite a video embedded in an article?" (a BBC story cited with BBC as the container and no publisher), "If the author, publisher, and name of a website are all the same, do I need to list the author or publisher?," and its answers on news-agency stories and unpaginated works. Example stories are the ones verified for the APA 7 page, reopened by curl on October 27, 2026, to confirm each byline (with full first name), headline, date, and URL.