How does your newspaper handle obituaries and death notices?

In the discussion of journalists’ failures in the Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax, I have suggested that journalists should have looked for an obituary of the purported girlfriend. And that has raised some questions about how obituaries and death notices are handled by newspapers today.

A comment by Rob Pegoraro on my post earlier today and tweets by Maureen Boyle have raised questions about whether everyone has an obituary (responding to Rob, I acknowledge that it probably happens, but say that at least a death notice usually gets published).

@stevebuttry @maghielse On obit: fewer obits now with outlets charging. Some families don’t post obits online thru funeral home either.

— Maureen Boyle (@MaureenEBoyle1) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry @maghielse Death notices can cost hundreds of $. Papers charge by line/word. Most free obits are gone.

— Maureen Boyle (@MaureenEBoyle1) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry @maghielse Not anymore at most papers in New England. Stopped yrs. back. Revenue source.

— Maureen Boyle (@MaureenEBoyle1) January 17, 2013

@maureeneboyle1 @stevebuttry @maghielse @justingraeber Obits aren’t a community service anymore:obit-mag.com/articles/a-dea…

— Maureen Boyle (@MaureenEBoyle1) January 17, 2013

(The link above is to a piece by the late Jim Naughton, A Death Notice for Obituaries, written in 2010, which prompted a response from me.)

When newsmakers and prominent people in the community die they get news stories. And when people die under unusual circumstances such as murders or accidents, we might write about them as well. So those situations are separate from the death-notice/obituary question. And (still in context of the Te’o hoax) I’ll say that I doubt any college student’s death wouldn’t merit a news story in the campus newspaper. Te’o’s fictional girlfriend purportedly was a Stanford student. The lack of a news story in the Stanford Daily should have been a red flag to reporters telling the story of her supposed death. (I originally said that Te’o’s fake girlfriend was purportedly a Stanford student, but I see in the Sports Illustrated transcript that he said she had graduated.)

Deaths that don’t warrant a news story get noted in newspapers at least two ways that I know of:

• A death notice, just a line saying something like: Steve Buttry, 58, Herndon Va., Jan. 17. This may proceed an obituary that will come later, or it may be the only notice.
• Obituaries usually run a few paragraphs (longer, if the family wants to pay more and tell more), briefly telling who the deceased was, who the survivors are and when and where services will be.

My most detailed personal knowledge of how this was done was at the Cedar Rapids Gazette, where as editor I actually was involved in changing how we handled obituaries. We published death notices for free and charged for obituaries (they brought in a notable but not huge revenue stream, paying well more than the wages and materials involved in publishing them).

But tweets today indicated that some places charge for death notices, too:

@stevebuttry @eclisham Make sure you don’t confuse death notices with obits. At one point, obits were free, death noticesclassified ads

— Maureen Boyle (@MaureenEBoyle1) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry Just catching up with this. I think “death notices” are usually paid, placed by the funeral home. Look like classified ads.

— Elaine Clisham (@eclisham) January 17, 2013

So here’s what I’m going to do: I’d like you to learn how your local newspaper (whether you work there or not) handles death notices and obituaries and give the answers below, in the poll or the comments or both. I’d especially like it if you explain any unusual wrinkles in the comments or if you paste in there links to online policies. I’ll blog later about the results. (Please don’t guess; I want current knowledge from  reliable experience such as being on the staff, having bought an obit recently or reading a policy online.)

I’m also interested if you know of anyone who has died recently who did not have an obituary published. Maybe that’s not as rare an occurrence as I think. Could you tell about the circumstances in the comments?

And if anyone knows of a study that’s been done on the questions of how many people don’t have obituaries published any more, or how many newspapers charge for obituaries or death notices, please share those links, too (I’ve rounded up a few below).

Two final points here:

1. Newspapers aren’t the only places obituaries are published. Some radio and TV stations are doing that now, and funeral homes publish obituaries on their websites (though that may be redundant; I don’t know whether TV and radio stations are publishing the same obits or whether they normally charge or publish them free).
2. I have a particular interest in obituaries, having blogged several times about a suggestion that news organization rethink our model for them (not related here, but worth mentioning):

• A possible new business model for obituaries
• Jobless journalists could find a business model in obituaries
• Obituaries: A chance to tell a loved one’s story

Links about newspapers and obituaries

The rural blog

Why do newspapers charge money to print obituaries?

Why charge for obituaries?

Responses to my questions

@stevebuttry In case no has already told you, @mercuryx does charge (extra for photos), but also runs free 3-or-4-line obits.

— Evan Brandt (@PottstownNews) January 17, 2013

Rick Mills, editor of the Morning Sun in Mt. Pleasant, Mich., sends this by email:

Here, obits are expensive and paid. We still run free death notices: name, age, city of residence and date of death.

Update: Rick added some more by email:

We also publish “death notices” as recorded in Michigan by county clerks. They come in a couple of weeks later, and are just simple name, city, age and date of death. But they are a sure-fire way to make sure you don’t miss your newspaper-of-record duty even if family declines death notice or obit.

I don’t know how widespread that practice is, but that gives a third layer of likelihood that a death will be reported in this local newspaper.

@stevebuttry Chattanooga Times Free Press gives 1st 50 words free; charges per word after that.

— Angela Tant (@amtant1972) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry I suspect days of everyone having a media-published obit/death notice are gone. Even some rural weeklies charge now. But ….

— Gerri Berendzen (@gerrrib) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry Most funeral homes, however, post obits on their websites. So it would just take more work to track a person’s obit down.

— Gerri Berendzen (@gerrrib) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry Charge for obits, have free death notices at @whignews. They’re all submitted, so doesn’t guarantee all deaths are published.

— Gerri Berendzen (@gerrrib) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry We went to paid format, hybrid of old paid death notice and news obit more than a year ago.

— Philip Heron (@PhilHeron) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry There is a nominal brief that is available that is a sentence or two. Everythign else is paid by the line.

— Philip Heron (@PhilHeron) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry We (small weekly) charge $35 to 10 inches, up rapidly for more to avoid novels. Death notice (70 words) free.

— Francis Materi (@fran_the_man) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry The Del Norte Triplicate charges for their obits. Not for death notices, though.

— Jessica Cejnar (@JessCejnar) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry At the @paradisepost obits are paid. Death Notices are free. And online.

— Rick Silva (@Post_RickSilva) January 17, 2013

@stevebuttry Paid obits @lansreporter for sometime now.

— Aixa Torregrosa (@AixaTorregrosa) January 17, 2013

Free. RT @stevebuttry: @aixatorregrosa @lansreporter Thanks, Aixa. How about death notices?

— Aixa Torregrosa (@AixaTorregrosa) January 17, 2013

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