Deaths previously reported by obituary writers are now handled by classified-ad salespeople, who charge according to length. According to Tonda Rush of the National Newspaper Association, which represents small dailies and weeklies, paid obits started showing up in significant numbers in the early 1980s. A spike in newsprint prices a couple of years ago accelerated the trend. Pat MacDonald, publisher of the MacDonald Classified Service , estimates that 90 percent of all major newspapers now charge for obituaries. With circulation declining at a national rate of about 1 percent a year, newspapers are making up the difference, partly with higher ad rates.
Many readers find the paid-obit trend troubling.
Barbara Henry, publisher of the Des Moines Register , agrees. When she took the job in 1996, she scuttled a plan by her predecessor to shift to a paid-obit policy. Nonsense, say the practice's defenders. Quite often the obit is written by the deceased in the first person. Moving obituaries from the news desk to the advertising department necessarily means handing editorial control over to the family of the deceased.