But that can be a misleading signal to readers when the story is somewhere the reporter isn't.
Readers use datelines to shop stories the same way they use headlines.
Take, for example, all those meaningless datelines from Nicosia, Cyprus, where the reporters sample the local grapes in relative comfort and listen to the radio for stories from Beirut and other neighborhood trouble spots. The trouble with the old rules about datelines is that they were invented before modern telecommunications came along, and they haven't changed. Where you sat when you used the telephone is irrelevant, but a dateline of one of those remote places would improperly lead a reader to believe you were there. When you're writing about someplace else within the greater Hampton Roads area, regardless of where you are, dateline the story where its main action occurred. For instance, a reporter working a story about a crime in West Point by telephone from the Williamsburg office would use a West Point dateline.