Why are online obituaries so expensive?

[Anonymous]

Everyone should have a website. Free and easy to make now. Small fee to rent a long term (decades) domain name for long term stability.

You and your family can all host copies of the obituary/memorial and all other kinds of stuff on their own sites.

Post copies to your social media accounts.

As long as anyone cares, there will be a posted memorial.

[Anonymous]

I have taken care of both my parents obits and its somewhere around 1500/paragraph, just the facts. However the Post called me back with my father's death a week later and wrote an extensive one no charge. Must have has some blank space to fill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The funeral home that handled my mom's arrangements did an online obituary for free, or at least included in the packet.

We used cremation society of MD, and got the simplest package except for a slightly nicer scattering container, and the whole thing was under $2K.

Thanks, but I think you misunderstood my question. He has an obituary at the funeral home, but it sucks. No one will allow for it to be adjusted so I was looking to send an amended one on my own to a publication or news website and it is too cost prohibitive.

No one reads the newspaper anymore. Save the money and find another way to honor him.

We had several people find out my dad died through the death announcement that we posted. Maybe it was because we posted it in the New York Times (he lived in NYC his entire life) so a lot of people still read that paper (and among my dad's demographic a lot of people still get the paper delivered). Older people often check those death announcements daily.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry for your loss, OP. Could you post it on Forevermissed or a similar website?

[Anonymous]

I do genealogy and use old newspapers in several countries to research obituaries and death notices. These are so useful for finding out information about people and their families in the 1800s, 1940s, 1980s etc.

The increased use of funeral directors' websites and social media for obituaries is cheaper, but from a research point of view it's worrying. These website listings tend to disappear in short time, and I assume won't be as durable as the newspaper archives, if that's important.

I agree with the OP that the prices are crazy, especially with a photo.

[Anonymous]

Looking at the Washington Post charging schedule, it is cheaper to do M-F than on Saturday or particularly Sunday. It is cheaper to do without a photo, or if you do use a photo, to use black and white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should have a website. Free and easy to make now. Small fee to rent a long term (decades) domain name for long term stability.

You and your family can all host copies of the obituary/memorial and all other kinds of stuff on their own sites.

Post copies to your social media accounts.

As long as anyone cares, there will be a posted memorial.

That's like the movie Coco. When the last person who remembers you dies, you disappear.

My father died in 2022. The funeral home obit lasted a couple of months. The newspaper one will last a lot longer because they maintain their archives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Long story short -my father passed away this week. My sister, who has POA over my parents affairs, went to the funeral home with mom to make the arrangements. For whatever reason, my mom asked for bare basics in the obituary - when/where he was born, where he worked, other pertinent dates (marriage) and a list of surviving relatives along with funeral arrangements. Nothing about his life/long hobbies, interests, or personality that belay his character and the life he lived, along with how his life touched others.

I checked other obits at this home, and there are several that reflect the warmth and joy of life I feel that my dad’s is lacking. Given how my mom won’t budge, I wanted to put something on the local paper where we grew up but learned it will cost $1500! My sister is dealing with other legal matters and said she doesn’t care but won’t let me change the obit or suggest any changes.

I guess my question is, other than creating my own and sharing on social media is there a way to inexpensively express the wonderful person my father was?

You can make him a profile on familysearch.org and save a biography and photos there. You can complete his family tree (only deceased family members show up publicly) or you might find someone else has created a tree of his ancestors already.