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When I am using a proper company name in my fiction, for example, when my character buys all her clothes mail order from Land’s End, or spends Sunday morning reading the New York Times, should those names be italicized?
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Names of companies, like Lands’ End (note the placement of the apostrophe: they goofed when they registered the name, and it’s been their tradename ever since), aren’t italicized. They’re treated like the names of places and people. Name of newspapers are italicized, like the titles of books, movies, and record albums. The Chicago Manual of Style recommends lowercasing the “the” before a newspaper’s name and setting it in roman (not italic), even when it’s part of the name. The Associated Press (AP) style manual wants the title styled exactly the way the newspaper does it. For most fiction and nonfiction, Chicago‘s style is fine: it saves you having to verify each newspaper’s “real” name. HTH, and thanks for the question!
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