Reviving Obituaries, Death Notices Before it's Too Late

The Newspaper Association of America's annual conference (MediaXchange) starts Sunday, and some newspaper executives attending the event will be talking about death -- that is, obituaries and death notices. It's time, perhaps past time, for the newspaper industry to focus more attention on this topic. Paid death notices are increasingly important to newspaper publishers. Purchased by families (or funeral directors on their behalf) to inform the community about a person's death, funeral details and requests for charitable donations, death notices matter to news organizations for at least two reasons. First, they are a form of classified advertising that has remained relatively strong while other categories (jobs, cars, homes) have declined precipitously. Beyond that, death notices are critical to newspapers because unlike the "big three" classified categories, death notices are inextricably linked to editorial content -- obituaries -- that newspapers are uniquely positioned to provide, and that consumers continue to value highly. via Poynter Online - E-Media Tidbits.