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A dateline is a brief piece of text included in
news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...
articles that describes where and when the story was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from
wire service A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...
s, the distributing organization is also included (though the originating one is not). Datelines are traditionally placed on the first line of the text of the article, before the first sentence.


Format

The location appears first, usually starting with the
city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
in which the
reporter A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
has written or dispatched the report. City names are usually printed in uppercase, though this can vary from one publication to another. The
political division Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...
and/or
nation A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...
the city is in may follow, but they may be dropped if the city name is widely recognizable due to its size or political importance (a national
capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...
, for instance). The date of the report comes after, followed by an
em dash The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
surrounded by spaces, and then the article. A typical newspaper dateline might read: :BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 2 — The outlook was uncertain today as ... The same story, if pulled from the
United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...
wire, might appear with the UPI identifier as: :BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 2 (UPI) — The outlook was uncertain today as ... Datelines can take on some unusual forms. When reporters collaborate on a story, two different locations might be listed. UPI and the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
omit a dateline "when a story has been assembled from sources in widely separate areas." In other cases, the exact location may be unknown or intentionally imprecise, such as when profiling a riverboat plying its route, when covering
military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...
operations while on a
ship A ship is a large watercraft, vessel that travels the world's oceans and other Waterway, navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally disti ...
at sea or following an invasion force, or when covering a press conference aboard an airplane. A ''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' article about the kilometer posts along
Interstate 19 Interstate 19 (I-19) is a north–south Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Arizona. I-19 travels from Nogales, roughly from the Mexican border, to Tucson, at I-10. The highway also travels through the cities of ...
obliquely reckons the location of
Tubac, Arizona Tubac is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,191 at the 2010 census. The place name "Tubac" is an English borrowing from a Hispanicized form of the O'odham name ''Cuwak'', which ...
, in kilometers from
Nogales, Arizona Nogales (; English: or ) is a city in and the county seat of Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The population was 20,837 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and estimated 20,103 in 2019. Nogales forms part of the larger Tucson–Nogales L ...
.


International variations

Datelines are used globally with some variations depending on the country's journalistic standards and practices. In the United Kingdom, datelines often include the city and sometimes the county for less well-known locations. A typical dateline in a British newspaper might read: :LONDON, 5 June — In Australia, datelines generally include the city and the abbreviation for the state or territory. An example dateline from an Australian news article might read: :SYDNEY, NSW, 5 June — In Japan, datelines often include the city and sometimes the prefecture. A Japanese newspaper dateline might look like: :TOKYO, 5 June — In many European countries, such as France and Germany, datelines typically include the city name, often in uppercase, and the date. For example: :PARIS, 5 June — :BERLIN, 5 June —


Other media

The concept of a dateline has been adapted to
television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
. Reporters on news programs might have their location mentioned in an introduction from the
news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
: :"Here now from Albuquerque, New Mexico, is reporter Nigel Culpepper" A field reporter might also end his stories by combining the location from where he filed the report with a "lockout" (the last thing a reporter says in the report, and includes his name and station ID, in addition to a news branding such as ''
Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action videos, instead of the older ,"man-on-camera" style of newscast, and is most prominently featured in the New York City metropolitan area. Hi ...
''); especially if the segment is recorded and not live. For example, the last bit of a report could sound like: :"... prompting an investigation into the matter. Richard Morris, BBC News, London." A number of current affairs TV shows have '' dateline'' as part of their name.


See also

*
Byline The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably '' Reader's ...


References

{{Reflist Newspaper terminology