What is a dateline?
The dateline indicates where and when the information was issued. It is placed at the very beginning of the first paragraph, before the text, and not in a separate headline. The city is often written in capital letters. In a press release distributed by a newswire, the name of the service is added after the date, for example, "PARIS, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/".
The term has nothing to do with the American television show of the same name, which accounts for some of the search volume for the word.
How do you write a dateline in French and English?
Conventions differ depending on the language and the country of the targeted journalists. In France, usage is flexible. In the United States, the Associated Press style guide is the standard. In the United Kingdom, the day-month-year order prevails.
| Target country |
Format |
Example |
Practice |
| United States (AP style) |
CITY, abbreviated month, day, year |
NEW YORK, Oct. 13, 2026 |
Expected in every release |
| United Kingdom |
CITY, day, month, year |
LONDON, 13 October 2026 |
Expected in every release |
| France |
City, “le”, date in full, in French |
PARIS, le 13 octobre 2026 : |
Loose, often replaced by a date at the top of the page |
| Sent over a newswire |
CITY, date, /service name/ |
PARIS, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ |
Added by the distribution service |
Why does the dateline still matter?
The dateline is a marker of credibility. An English-speaking journalist who receives a press release without a dateline sees it as a text that does not follow standard editorial practices. It also serves to locate the announcement: a French startup opening an office in New York can dateline its press release from New York to signal its local presence.
The dateline also indicates the release date. For a press release under embargo, the date in the dateline is the date the embargo is lifted, not the date it was sent.
What mistakes should you avoid?
The most frequent mistakes come from press releases translated without adaptation: using the French date format in an English text, using the headquarters' city when the announcement concerns another country, or placing the dateline in the headline. Each of these signals to the journalist that the text was written for a different audience.
Learn more
The dateline opens the press release, the boilerplate closes it. To see complete templates: examples of annotated press releases, and the guide press release in English for Anglo-Saxon conventions. For an announcement targeting multiple countries: our public relations support.
Last updated: October 2026
