Dateline
The dateline at the head of a dispatch says where the reporting was filed from. What it genuinely promises the reader, and what it does not.
The line at the head of a dispatch — "GENEVA, July 16 (Reuters)" — is called the dateline. It names the place the reporting was filed from and the day it was transmitted. It is a news-agency convention born in the telegraph era, when knowing where a message came from was part of the message.
The professional rule is strict at the big agencies: the place given is where the journalist actually was. A piece written in London about a decision taken in Kyiv carries a London dateline. That is what gives the line its intelligence value.
The classic misreading is to take it as a guarantee of eyewitness reporting. It is not: it says where the journalist was, not what they saw. A dispatch datelined from a capital may be nothing more than a rewrite of a statement received in an office in that capital.
Related reading
- WireGlossary
The wire is the continuous stream of dispatches a news agency sends its clients. How it works, and why the reader never sees it directly.
- CorrespondentGlossary
A correspondent is a journalist based long-term in a territory to cover it at a distance from the newsroom. Role, employment status, and how they differ from envoys.
- BylineGlossary
The byline is the line naming who wrote a piece. What it commits, what its variants reveal, and why its absence is a signal.
- The difference between a dispatch and an articleGuides
A dispatch is a wholesale product written for newsrooms; an article is written for you. Two objects, two authors, two uses — and how to tell them apart.
- Reuters, AP and AFP: the differencesGuides
Three global agencies, three histories and three very different ownership structures. What actually separates them, beyond the flag on the business card.