The death of the obits
Steve Safran October 2nd, 2006
My first job in journalism was writing obituaries. Summarizing a person’s life into a few paragraphs is a humbling experience. It’s also a great way to learn how to take an enormous amount of information and distill it into a story - the essence of writing. And, of course, obituaries are getting the shaft at the papers. Putting them online makes the most sense, of course - obits compose a large database, searchable, long-term information. But Poynter’s Peter Zollman found huge frustrations when he went to find the obit of an Orlando Sentinel business writer at the website of - that’s right - the Orlando Sentinel.
12 Comments Add your own
1. C Johnson | October 2nd, 2006 at 8:01 am
Obits have become another profit center at the Gannett owned rag in my city. Five tiny lines for free. Display rates after that and they are quite successful at also upselling a picture of the deceased.
2. flotsam | October 2nd, 2006 at 8:25 am
RIP Safran the obit writer.
3. Steve Safran | October 2nd, 2006 at 8:35 am
You know, I don’t really have a problem with the “upsell” of obits. I’d like to think my kids would pay to have the Big Pic up there, even if it said underneath “Raise Your Hand If You’re Surprised By This.”
I’m pragmatic. If people want more space dedicated to their loved ones, they should be able to buy it. After all, as an obit writer, there was no way I could write about the thousands of people who died that day in any way that would do them justice.
When you think about it, obits are the ultimate citizen journalism project. Who knows you better than your family and friends? I’d rather they write about me than a guy in a dark room working the overnight. And I’d rather they pay for the space so people could access their writing/video.
Quick Aside: After a brief, surprise stay at a hospital, I returned to the NECN newsroom to an awkward silence. It was quickly broken by one of the news anchors who shouted “Dammit! We had your obit piece ready to go.”
That’s newsroom love.
4. Hairy | October 2nd, 2006 at 8:37 am
I think free obits are just about gone these days. I live in a very small town whose newspaper charges the funeral home 10 dollars per obit. AND the local radio station even has a sponsored obit segment during the morning news. If you want a longer obit other than the date and time of the funeral in the state paper you have to pay for it.
5. thedetroitchannel | October 2nd, 2006 at 8:40 am
leave it to a tight-fisted old codger to come up with something like:
“due to the limited FREE space this paper allows find out the details on what an sob i was when living at http://www.cheapoldbastard.com“
6. flotsam | October 2nd, 2006 at 9:26 am
The pay obit has become a fact of life (and death).
Look at the NYTime obit page. Those columns of notices are all paid for and paid for by the word.
Some of those obits now run a column in length.
People having been denied “their 15 minutes” while living are being given it by relatives after death.
7. Alyssa | October 2nd, 2006 at 10:20 am
When the NBC o+o I worked for decided to do online obits (in response to the local paper begininng to charge for them) they ran into some shocked funeral directors who felt it was disrespectful to have someone’s obit ‘live’ online forever.
8. Steve | October 2nd, 2006 at 1:05 pm
I paid $711 for my father’s obit in June.
9. Alyssa | October 3rd, 2006 at 8:26 am
My dad’s used to be online, but it seems to have disappeared. I would love for it to live forever online, knowing that somehow his memory lives on for any family member or friend who wishes to view it.
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