The line at the beginning of a news story that indicates where and when the story was reported or written. Traditionally appearing before the lead paragraph, datelines typically include the city name in capital letters, followed by the state or country if necessary for clarity.
The dateline tells readers the geographic origin of the story and helps establish the reporter’s proximity to the events being covered. In wire service stories, datelines are particularly important as they indicate where the reporting took place. Modern digital journalism sometimes includes timestamps along with location information, providing readers with both geographic and temporal context for the news story.
