What Type of Obituary is Best

People read obituaries to find out who has passed away in their community. Obituaries are also a valuable resource for genealogical research since they provide details about the life and death of a person. Unfortunately, due to the decrease in newspaper readership, the number of obituaries published in newspapers is shrinking each year. Many newspapers have begun to charge exorbitant fees for the publication of obituaries or have drastically reduced the size of the obituary section.

In response, the Internet is providing new venues for posting online obituaries and memorials. In addition to allowing elaborate memorials with photos, video and music to be created, the interactive nature of the Internet allows the friends and family of a deceased person to share memories and discuss their feelings in online guest books. The Internet’s ability to bring people together and create online communities is far more powerful than a newspaper obituary and promises to change the nature of public grieving.

The current leading online obituary site is Legacy.com. This website hosts obituaries for newspapers as well as providing tools for individuals to create fee-based online memorials. Legacy.com hosts obituaries and memorials for more than 70% of all deaths in the U.S. and is accessed by more than 10 million visitors each month. Tributes.com is another website that supports the creation of fee-based online memorials. It was started by the creator of Monster.com, a job search website that has replaced newspaper classified ads for many jobseekers.

You can read more about the benefits of online memorials in the NWI Times article Death in the Digital Age.

Catie W.
September 27, 2010