Template talk:Infobox newspaper

Wikidata version?

Is there a Wikidata version for this template? this would allow us to replace the bare infoboxes in:

• Carmarthen Journal
• The Cambrian
• The Cardiff Times
• Baner ac Amserau Cymru
• Seren Gomer
• Y Llan
• Y Goleuad
• Y Gwladgarwr
• The Welshman (newspaper)
• The Weekly Mail
• Yr Amserau
• The Aberystwyth Observer
• The Aberdare Times
• Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald
• Y Genedl Gymreig
• Aberystwyth Times
• Y Dydd
• Y Tyst Cymreig
• The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian
• Seren Cymru
• Potter's Electric News
• Carmarthen Weekly Reporter
• Gwalia (newspaper)
• Llangollen Advertiser
• Tarian y Gweithiwr
• The Principality (newspaper)
• Y Tyst a'r Dydd
• Wrexham and Denbigh Weekly Advertiser
• County Observer and Monmouthshire Central Advertiser
• Tenby Observer
• North Wales Gazette
• Y Gwyliedydd
• The Merthyr Telegraph
• The Visitors' List and Guide
• The Cardigan Observer
• Denbigh, Ruthin and Vale of Clwyd Free Press
• Glamorgan Monmouth and Brecon Gazette and Merthyr Guardian
• Y Rhedegydd
• Pontypridd Chronicle
• The Brecon Reporter
• The Demetian Mirror
• Llais Y Wlad
• The Cardigan Bay Visitor
• Flintshire Observer
• Haverfordwest & Milford Haven Telegraph
• Y Werin

Frietjes (talk) 00:04, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

Could the template be modified to pull info from Wikidata when available? This could be useful for things like websites, ISSNs, etc. Trivialist (talk) 15:03, 20 August 2022 (UTC)

I'd love to see it! I know Mike Peel has expertise in that area. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 15:44, 20 August 2022 (UTC)

It's technically quite easy now, the tricky thing is community consensus. I'd encourage you to look at Template:Infobox telescope as a good example, which uses Module:WikidataIB to fetch Wikidata values, and to provide various controls such as only fetching referenced values, maximum number of values, suppression of fields, etc. I can help if you have specific questions about how to do this, but I don't have the time to do the coding myself now, sorry. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 18:24, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

This might also help with the notability of some params as discussed in the archives of this talk page, if only statements at WD with refs would be imported. Arlo James Barnes 20:24, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Showing only referenced statements from Wikidata is supported. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 20:30, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

It might also be worth mentioning that versions of this template in other languages, such as French and Arabic, already make use of Wikidata. OpenArabicPE (talk) 21:29, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

Website screenshot

With newspapers now being increasingly web-based, I think there should be an additional set of parameters for the homepage of a newspaper's online equivalent, which at this point likely receive much more traction than in-print versions. Crusader1096 (message) 04:07, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

Agree, but perhaps it could be a generic 'front page' param. Arlo James Barnes 20:21, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Param for title of newspaper in main language

As title; would be nice to include the original title of the paper if it's a non-english language paper toobigtokale (talk) 20:21, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 2 October 2023

Hi, I'd like to request that the LCCN parameter at least be added as an optional inclusion, please. It's always good to have backups. And I think the Library of Congress has a significant database, where I can fill in a variety of missing identifiers in infoboxes. Thank you. --Cinemaniac⁸⁶_{Dane_Cook_Hater_Extraordinaire} 22:58, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit template-protected}} template. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:30, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Apologies. I didn't realize we had to request for a change before I edited either, and should have undid my own revision. So should I open up a proposal about LCCN for discussion on the talk page for now and see if anyone else thinks it's worthwhile to include as an option before I request again? --Cinemaniac⁸⁶_{Dane_Cook_Hater_Extraordinaire} 10:54, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

Continuing discussion here is alright. I think of ISSNs as the standard identifier for newspapers, so my initial thought is that I'm not particularly keen to add others. There's always {{authority control}} for when it's really needed. If the parameter was designed so that it only shows up if the ISSN isn't present, that might be somewhat better, but it still might lead to people adding it rather than ISSNs. How many notable newspapers are we talking about that have a LCCN but not an ISSN? {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 14:00, 3 October 2023 (UTC)

Creative director field?

Should there be a field for creative director? I'm looking specifically at the article on The Concordian. The person listed as "associate editor" is actually, according to this webpage, creative director. Maybe there's a way around this that I don't know about for the infobox? BobbyWatson42 (talk) 22:52, 26 November 2023 (UTC)

No. In that use case, even if it was called associate editor, the only person you should list is the editor-in-chief. And if the creative director were equal in stature to the EIC, you'd just use the custom field option. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 01:14, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 11 March 2024

add parameter Deputy Managing Editor below Managing Editor. No need to include plural variant.

Context: This request is inspired by the fact that The Chicago Maroon's new executive leadership includes a deputy managing editor, who appears on the paper's masthead directly below the managing editor. They fulfill similar functions. There are also deputy managing editors at the Washington Square News and several other local and regional news outlets.

F8of (talk) 06:33, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

 Not done There are already far too many positions listed in this infobox, violating WP:LEADWEIGHT. We should be removing most of them, not adding more. From what you've said, the fact that the deputy managing editor is below the managing editor in the hierarchy means that it is not a top postition (even if listed on the masthead), and should not be listed. (If it were appropriate to list, you would be able to use |custom_label= for a niche case, but again, it is not.) Sdkb ^talk 10:28, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 13 May 2024

Please add a parameter trove-id, which links to https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/title/XXXX where XXXX is the value passed in the parameter. This would be similar to the fields for OCLC ID in the US and RNI in India. Trove is an online newspaper archive service provided by the National Library of Australia. There are 1806 local, regional and national newspapers archived on Trove, and I think this would be a useful link to include in the Infobox and a timesaver for editors over using free.

I'd also like to propose the successors, successor, predecessors and predecessor parameters, or just two parameters instead of four with the labels Successor(s) and Predecessor(s) for newspapers which have amalgamated, split up and spun off. Sister newspapers works for spin-offs, but not so much for amalgamations and splits. Adam Black ^{talk • contributions} 03:47, 13 May 2024 (UTC)

Both seem like good ideas. For the second, though, I think it'd be more useful to readers to be more specific with the label, e.g. Merged into X rather than Successor X. Perhaps Infobox organization or others have a model we could use. Sdkb ^talk 13:46, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

@Sdkb, I think that would be ideal. Maybe something like merged-into, absorbed, split-into and spin-offs could be used alongside predecessor and successor tags for situations where the specific tags don't quite fit. I can't think of any specific examples but there's always the possibility something crops up where the more specific tags don't make sense. The template documentation could be used to ask editors to use the more specific parameters wherever possible. I've had a look through the Infobox organization parameters to see what parameters they use and it seems the only relevant ones are predecessor, merged, successor and merger. Adam Black ^{talk • contributions} 20:00, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Could Trove be used in |free=? I would be fine if there was a separate parameter. SWinxy (talk) 23:03, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

I think Trove could be used in free, but to me it seems like it would be useful to have a field with "Trove" (including the link) as the label and maybe a "The Pingelly Leader online archive" link as the content, with the newspaper name displayed based on the page title. Adam Black ^{talk • contributions} 23:40, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Deactivating edit request as this is still being discussed and not ready to go live. Feel free to reactivate if you still need an uninvolved template editor (rather than Sdkb or SWinxy implementing themselves) when you have agreed on what code to use, put it in the sandbox, and tested it. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 16:53, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 30 May 2025

Add ability to embed other templates at the bottom of this infobox. Think this will be relatively uncontroversial; it's a standard feature in I'd say the majority of other major infoboxes. The reason I want it is because {{Infobox Korean name/auto}} is often embedded in other infoboxes.

In line that begins with | below, ctrl+f to locate the below statement:

}} }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check

change the above line to this:

}} {{{module|}}} }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check

I tested this out in the sandbox and confirmed that it works. Note that this places the embedded template right below the "Media of x" and "List of newspapers in x" messages at the bottom of the infobox. grapesurgeon (seefooddiet) (talk) 19:22, 30 May 2025 (UTC)

 Done See test case. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:01, 31 May 2025 (UTC)

Parameters cleanup.

Many of the parameters for this template do not conform to MOS:INFOBOXNAME. For example params should use snake case. So |generalmanager= should be |general_manager= and |sister newspapers= should be |sister newspapers=. I’m going to start the process of converting the template to follow the MOS. This should NOT break any existing transclusions but I reserve the right to be trouted for mistakes… — Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 05:04, 9 September 2025 (UTC)

I have implemented the change and marked the old style parameters as deprecated. Category:Pages using infobox newspaper with deprecated parameters (0) is slowly populating.

The following replacements should be made:

• |chiefeditor= → |chief_editor=
• |depeditor= → |deputy_editor=
• |assoceditor= → |associate_editor=
• |generalmanager= → |general_manager=
• |newseditor= → |news_editor=
• |managingeditordesign= → |managing_editor_design=
• |dirinteractive= → |director_interactive=
• |campuseditor= → |campus_editor=
• |campuschief= → |campus_chief=
• |metroeditor= → |metro_editor=
• |metrochief= → |metro_chief=
• |opeditor= → |opinion_editor=
• |sportseditor= → |sports_editor=
• |photoeditor= → |photo_editor=
• |staff= → |staff_writers=
• |custom= → |custom_data=
• |foundation= → |founded=
• |ceased publication= → |ceased_publication=
• |sister newspapers= → |sister_newspapers=

I have enlisted Primefac to run his PrimeBOT to clean this up.

—Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 09:04, 10 September 2025 (UTC)

Done, ish. You missed a few but I'm not going to make a fourth pass to get the last of them. Partially my fault for not seeing the second list on the cat before I started, but even that was missing a few. Primefac (talk) 21:23, 14 September 2025 (UTC)

Many thanks primefac! I can clean the last few manually. —Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 21:58, 14 September 2025 (UTC)

@Primefac: Category:Pages using infobox newspaper with deprecated parameters (0) is pretty darn full now. Any chance I can convince you to do another pass? Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 04:14, 22 September 2025 (UTC)

@Zackmann08 I managed to take a chunk out of it pretty easily mostly using AWB. Still a lot left but 200 or so down. PARAKANYAA (talk) 20:48, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

@PARAKANYAA: Appreciate it! Check your regex though. You introduced some unknown parameters. Tagged you in the diffs. Make sure to use preview as it will show you the errors. - Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 20:51, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

Huh, I didn't notice that there was a plural version of "maneditors". whoops, I'll fix that going forward. PARAKANYAA (talk) 20:53, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

All good. You live and you learn. I’ve made PLENTY of AWB bad regexes myself. — Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 20:54, 27 September 2025 (UTC)

The usual handful left that got skipped for one reason or another, but I'm going to mark this as  Done from my end. Primefac (talk) 14:22, 3 October 2025 (UTC)

As usual, you rock! Thanks Primefac. I'll tackle the leftovers. - Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 17:54, 3 October 2025 (UTC)

I see the cache finally caught us again; I'll see about doing another bot run. Primefac (talk) 00:21, 6 October 2025 (UTC)

@Primefac: are you able to run the bot based on a search instead of just a category? If so, hastemplate:"Infobox newspaper" insource:/foundation\s*=/ should get 99% of em... - Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 00:25, 6 October 2025 (UTC)

I mean, as long as I'm not hitting any page more than once, it doesn't really matter if the cat is fully populated yet; I can just run another bot run if there are some missing. That being said, with 4k+ already done and 3k more to go, we're getting pretty close to all 10k transclusions... Primefac (talk) 00:45, 6 October 2025 (UTC)

Gave it an extra week to populate, third round done, four pages left to finish manually. Hopefully this is the last round! Primefac (talk) 00:03, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

thanks! - Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 00:39, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Nice to see this cleanup! Although quite a few of these parameters I'd be open to deprecating overall — per MOS:INFOBOX, newspaper infoboxes should be following WP:LEADWEIGHT, which in most means only listing the top editor and the publisher. Having parameters like |sports_editor= encourages overuse that makes infoboxes too long. Sdkb ^talk 13:33, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

@Sdkb: Seems reasonable to me. Can I suggest starting a new thread though? Happy to help make it happen, but that would be a huge change with the potential to affect over 10,000 pages. Think it should def be discussed first. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 18:15, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Totally; a new thread is appropriate. Sdkb ^talk 18:28, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Deprecating overused parameters

Reiterating from above, per MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE, infoboxes should have only the key facts that appear in an article, following WP:LEADWEIGHT. I'd say that means, here, generally only listing the top editor and the publisher, or (for newspapers with a more unusual structure) some other combo of the very top of the masthead. Having parameters like |sports_editor= encourages overuse that makes infoboxes too long, contributing to bloat. The sports editor wouldn't normally be due to mention in the lead, so they shouldn't be in the infobox either. For the rare situation in which they are actually a super important person for the paper, |custom_label= is available.

With that in mind, I'd like to propose deprecating the following:

• |managing_editor_design=
• |director_interactive=
• |sports_editor=
• |environment_editor=
• |staff_writers=

Of these, I anticipate the the last is the most widely used.

I'd also like to suggest that we put cautionary language in the documentation for many of the parameters we keep. E.g. I'm not proposing we deprecate |metro_chief= because at some papers that might be among the very top positions, but that doesn't mean that every paper with a metro chief should have the metro chief listed in the infobox. (I recall we did something similar at {{Infobox university}} for the top positions at universities.)

Cheers, Sdkb ^talk 18:49, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Fully support! Anything that improves the Infobox and reduces the clutter is good in my book. The param report might be helpful for seeing just how many of each case we are talking about...

• |managing_editor_design= - 35 uses
• |director_interactive= - 12 uses
• |sports_editor= - 199 uses
• |environment_editor= - ZERO uses
• |staff_writers= - 307 uses

So at most (assuming no overlap at all) we are looking at 553 pages being affected. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 19:01, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

I'd be fine with dropping the others but I'd want to keep staff writers. That can be useful and significant provided they're notable. PARAKANYAA (talk) 20:15, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

@PARAKANYAA: I always took |staff_writers= to be a number... The param report shows that many if not most of the uses are the number of staff writers. Perhaps take this opportunity to rename the parameter |notable_staff= or something that makes it clearer what is intended? Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 20:21, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Having a number of staff writers looks good. But the description currently says "Names of Staff writers". If we want the number, we should change the description to reflect that and have the field throw up a maintenance category if it detects that there's a list of names rather than a number.

@PARAKANYAA, how often is "this person writes for them" a due thing to put into the lead of a newspaper article? I'd say very rarely — a newspaper will generally have many different reporters over time, so naming all of them would take up way too much space, and generally no one reporter is significant enough to the paper as a whole to warrant listing. I'd therefore say this info shouldn't be in the infobox either. Sdkb ^talk 21:02, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Eh, alright. It's not too important I suppose. PARAKANYAA (talk) 04:58, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

@Sdkb: any further thoughts on this?? If you still want to make this happen I'm happy to help. There certainly doesn't seem to be a large objection... Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 00:14, 30 October 2025 (UTC)

@Zackmann08, sorry for the delay in following up! It appears there is consensus to deprecate the parameters from above, except for the staff writers one, which should have its documentation changed to specify that it's asking for a number and throw a maintenance category if it detects something else. Feel free to implement! Sdkb ^talk 17:39, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

Deprecation added. Will remove as category populates. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 00:01, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Thanks! Looks like that takes care of everything except the staff writers one. Sdkb ^talk 00:51, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

 Done all transclusions cleaned. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 08:28, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

Can you clarify what that means regarding |staff_writers=? I don't see any change to the documentation or check added to the template to ensure only a number is being used. Sdkb ^talk 16:26, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

Syntax request for custom data and label

If there were more than one unique positions that warranted a custom label, how would one do that with the current setup? Would it be worth it to implement the numbering system consistent with label_n/data_n for this? Gottacorrectthemall (talk) 15:53, 29 October 2025 (UTC)

@Gottacorrectthemall: this is highly unlikely to happen as it opens up a pandora's box of adding every conceivable position at the newspaper. See the thread above about wanting to remove a number of parameters already... Can you give me an example though? What page are you wanting to add a unique position to the infobox? I don't want to totally shoot down your idea, but if you can give a few specific examples of what you are trying to achieve... I.E. Washington Post is missing their Chief Editor of Entertainment or something like that... Then we will have a better sense of what to do. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 00:13, 30 October 2025 (UTC)

Edit request 26 November 2025

Description of suggested change: italic_title param does not work.

See, for exmaple, the transclusion of this template on page E&E News, where italic_title = no but the top of the infobox still renders italicized.

BhamBoi (talk) 22:58, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Parameter |italic_title= controls italics in the title of the page (similar to template {{italic title}}), not the title of the infobox. The title above the box of {{Infobox newspaper}} is italicized by template styles, unrelated to the parameter |italic_title=. If you edit and preview the page E&E News with and without |italic_title=no, you will see "Editing E&E News" and "Editing E&E News" respectively at the top of the page. That's the effect of this parameter. —⁠andrybak (talk) 00:18, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

Edit request: add Design editor and Deputy design editor parameters

Requesting the addition of two staff-role parameters to

Infobox newspaper

:

• design_editor • deputy_design_editor

Rationale: Design editor roles are standard positions on many newspapers’ mastheads, comparable in scope to existing fields such as News editor, Opinion editor, and Photo editor. These roles are stable, sourced, and summary-appropriate for an infobox.

Proposed implementation: I have prepared the change in the sandbox, adding two label/data pairs after “News editor” and updating the unknown-parameter allowlist: Template:Infobox newspaper/sandbox

These parameters would allow articles to list design staff without misusing custom fields or article prose. Imtrulyverysorry (talk) 03:36, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

We have moved away from listing specific types of editor. See above. PARAKANYAA (talk) 04:01, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

Then could more custom labels be introduced? There are cases, especially for smaller papers with an editorial team that is limited in size, where removing specific kinds of editor means that we see 1/3 of editors either get a title that isn't correct, or not be included entirely.

Imtrulyverysorry (talk) 04:14, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

It is best to not include it. Infoboxes are for major details. PARAKANYAA (talk) 05:47, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

"Sister newspaper" parameter

Would it be better to use "Sibling newspaper" or even "Related newspaper" instead of "Sister"? ---Another Believer _(Talk) 02:50, 1 September 2026 (UTC)

Why would either of those options be better? Primefac (talk) 21:29, 1 September 2026 (UTC)

I've never seen someone use the term "brother" newspaper. So, no. PARAKANYAA (talk) 21:33, 1 September 2026 (UTC)

Ok! I thought we tried to avoid such gendered language (opting for "sibling project" instead of "sister project", for example), but no worries. ---Another Believer _(Talk) 21:35, 1 September 2026 (UTC)

I suppose so, but not when it's the name of something (see similar examples with sister city, sister ship, sister show, etc.) Primefac (talk) 09:17, 2 September 2026 (UTC)