Newspapers and Obituaries

[Swaggs]

I found out something interesting this week regarding newspapers and obituaries and I thought I would share and get some responses....

The backstory is that one of my father-in-law's out of town relatives passed away last week. The deceased relative lived in our hometown of Morgantown for a number of years, graduating from Morgantown High School and earning two degrees from WVU before moving out of state. He lived to quite an old age, so while it is sad that he passed away, his life was a very full one.

Anyway, I enter the story through my father-in-law, who wanted to place an obituary in Morgantown's local paper, as the relative spent a large portion of his life there and made many friends and acquaintances. So, I agreed to type up the obituary that was written and email it to appropriate account from their website, which I gladly did. Father-in-law was pleased and called some relatives to let them know to keep an eye out for it.

So, a day later we get an email saying that obituaries cost $14 per inch and they needed a name/number/address so that they could send a bill for $90. We all found this to be pretty surprising and disgusting.

Is it common to charge for obituaries? I had assumed that it was generally a courtesy/public service-type of thing to notify the community that one of their own had passed away. I guess I am fortunate that I have not had much experience with submitting obituaries, but I find it pretty hard to believe that they charge to include something that is, I imagine, one of more "popular" items that requires them no legwork to produce, is needed in a time of grieving, and does not provide any commercial benefit to the folks that submit it.

What do you guys think about this? Would you have paid?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Is it common to charge for obituaries?

Varies by newspaper, but I wouldn't say it's "uncommon". As a general rule, the larger the paper, the more likely there's going to be a charge. These days, anything larger than a weekly local paper is probably going to charge about 80-90 percent of the time.

I imagine a lot of people don't even realize there's a charge because the obits are often submitted for publication by the funeral home & are billed (often with significant markup, anywhere from 2x to 5x) as part of the burial bill.

[Jonathan Ezarik]

I'm pretty sure that charging for something like this is standard in all papers. Kind of like wedding announcements, births, etc.

[Celeval]

I imagine a lot of people don't even realize there's a charge because the obits are often submitted for publication by the funeral home & are billed (often with significant markup, anywhere from 2x to 5x) as part of the burial bill.

This was my experience (although with the home we used, without the markup) when my father passed last spring.

[Mateo]

Working at a newspaper, I can tell you that classified ads, like obits, are the lifeblood of any newspaper.

It sounds like he lived a full life. Perhaps maybe you should have talk to someone on the news side to possibly write an obit about him, if he's had some influence on life where he lives/

I know this because the paper that I happen to work for allowed me to write both my parents' obits when they passed. But it was extended as a favor to me, and because I was a clerk working on the city desk writing up short blurbs for the paper. Don't think that you could write one and expect them to run it. They had to "massage" my copy before it made it in.

Try calling up a reporter from the paper, and see if they actually do in-depth obits first, then try to sell him/her on why they deserve to have one written in the news section. If you can convince them, you have a chance

[kcchief19]

Varies by newspaper, but I wouldn't say it's "uncommon". As a general rule, the larger the paper, the more likely there's going to be a charge. These days, anything larger than a weekly local paper is probably going to charge about 80-90 percent of the time.

I imagine a lot of people don't even realize there's a charge because the obits are often submitted for publication by the funeral home & are billed (often with significant markup, anywhere from 2x to 5x) as part of the burial bill.
This pretty much nails it. I agree that most people would never see the bill because the funeral home handles the billing.

I would hazard to say that most if not all papers have a free obituary listing where at minimum the name of everyone who passed away is listed for free. That is the "community service" aspect of obituaries. Again, the smaller the paper the more you're likely to get for free, maybe a few lines.

As a matter of logic, newspapers almost have to charge for longform obituaries. For example, if there wasn't a fee, what would prevent people from submitting 3,000 word obituaries? There almost has to be limit since the newspaper can do things like that for free.

I'm sorry to hear you had a negative experience. It certainly sounds like the paper should have at least promoted the pricing much better so you knew this up front.

[Joe]

never heard of a newspaper not charging

[vtbub]

We pay by the line up here, it's just part vof the funeral home's package.

I'm pretty sure it's the one part read by 90% of the readers.

THREADJACK: 3,000 posts in 6 years!

[MikeVic]

Before reading this I hadn't heard of a paper not charging.