• 2-minute read
• 4th May 2018

Chicago Referencing – Citing a Newspaper (Footnote Style)

News flash! Citing sources is vital in academic writing. But what should you do if you need to cite a newspaper in your work? This all depends on the referencing system you’re using.

With Chicago referencing, you have two options: author–date referencing or footnote citations. In this post, though, we’re looking specifically at citing a newspaper with Chicago-style footnotes.

Footnote Citations

The first time you cite a newspaper article, give full publication information in the footnote. The format for doing this is:

n. Author Name, “Title of Article,” Title of Newspaper, date of publication, page number.

In practice, then, the first citation of a newspaper article would look like this:

1. James V. Koch, “No College Kid Needs a Water Park to Study,” New York Times, January 9 2018, 65.

This citation points to an article on page 65 of the New York Times, published on January 9. Online articles won’t have page numbers, though. Instead, give a URL and date of access. For instance:

2. James V. Koch, “No College Kid Needs a Water Park to Study,” New York Times, January 9 2018, accessed 2 April 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/opinion/trustees-tuition-lazy-rivers.html.

If you need to cite the same article again, you can use a shortened format. To do this, just give the author’s surname, a shortened version of the title, and (if relevant) a page number.

Bibliography

In Chicago footnote referencing, all cited sources are listed in a bibliography at the end of the document. The format to use for a newspaper article here is:

Surname, First Name(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, date of publication.

As with footnote citations, you should also give a date of access and URL for online articles. For instance, if citing a print article and an online article, the bibliography entries would look like this:

Koch, James V. “No College Kid Needs a Water Park to Study.” New York Times, January 9 2018.

Selingo, Jeffrey J. “You Got into the College of Your Dreams. But Will You Actually Go There?” The Washington Post, March 29 2018. Accessed 2 April 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/03/29/you-got-into-the-college-of-your-dreams-but-will-you-actually-go-there/?utm_term=.7ba14166f003