After recently hearing that an old high school friend had passed away, I went to the online version of the newspaper to learn more about the service arrangements. What began as a simple quest for information opened my eyes to what's occurring in the world of online memorialization. One would hope that in this world of 'in your face' online advertisements that some sectors would remain undisturbed; in particular, the death industry. Sadly, this doesn't appear to be the case.
Just to be clear, this is not a criticism of funeral homes. In fact, almost every obituary I've seen on a funeral home website is tastefully displayed and respectful of the deceased. Many include an opportunity to read and send condolences. Some include photo galleries. Others include opportunities to show an expression of sympathy to the family by donating to a charity, sending a floral tribute or lighting a memorial candle. There were no flashing ads encouraging me to find my credit rating or buy something to enhance my partner's 'stamina'. The same can't be said for what appears to be new 'online directories' and even some newspapers trying to profit from these obituaries. I found this concept to be distasteful and infuriating.
My search began on several newspaper websites. It appears most display online obituaries as they would appear in print however there is one notable and interesting exception. On the sites of many national chains, the obituaries are often stripped of any reference back to the funeral home's website where the obituaries not only remain indefinitely but often provide a much broader amount of information to the public. I soon began to realize why. The online newspapers have started to limit an obituary's life span; each listing remains online for a couple of months. This makes perfect sense since most people only need the obituary to look up the service details over the few days following the death. But now, these newspapers are trying to encourage visitors to 'sponsor' the obituary on an annual basis or forever to ensure the obituary remains online and visible.
Some national newspaper chains are also now trying to use the obituary listing to offer visitors an opportunity to light a memorial candle, send a condolence or add photos to a gallery. This seems quite odd considering many funeral homes already provide these types of memorializations including photo galleries created with pictures provided by the family. Why do the newspapers feel it's necessary to provide the same service as the funeral homes that placed these obituaries in the first place?
It's evident that some newspapers, third party marketers, and "dot-com" cyberpreneurs, are trying to take advantage of, capitalize on, and profit from obituary notices. I wonder if the funeral homes or the families who entrusted this information to them are even aware that this is occurring.
From what I understand, the obituary is a copy-written piece of work between the funeral home and a family. Even though the obituary is sent to the newspaper for publication — in print and online — it is protected under copyright laws and the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act. These are in place to protect any form of written work against unauthorized use or reproduction, particularly when used for commercial gain, without the written consent from the funeral home and family that originally compiled the written copy obituary. One can only speculate about the magnitude of copyright infractions.
While searching newspaper websites, I soon discovered Legacy.com. It suggests on its website that it is an "innovative online media company that collaborates with more than 750 newspapers in North America, Europe and Australia". How is Legacy.com able to 'collaborate' using a product (in this case, an obituary) that it doesn't own, didn't create, or was never authorized by the author to use for a commercial venture? Did funeral homes or families give newspapers the right to 'sell off' the obituary?
Curiously, I followed the 'About' link to the page that features the seven members of 'Senior Leadership'. Reading through the qualifications, I noted that not one person holds any funeral profession experience. Marketing, sales, consulting and web technology stood out. True entrepreneurs. Impressive, I guess.
The first thing one sees when visiting the Legacy.com home page is a flashing advertisement for an online vital statistics search engine. A flashing advertisement features pictures of Hollywood stars and asks why 'these celebrities don't age'. Apparently, a 'miracle pill' is the answer to your concerns about aging. The home page also features obituaries of famous people who have died and provides a search mechanism to find the obituary of someone who isn't necessarily famous. All part of the gimmick, I guess.
You begin your search by entering a person's name or the name of a newspaper. This portal then takes you to what's called 'ObitFinder'. From there, a list of obituary snippets is presented, which is where it becomes a bit confusing. Some of the listings provide direct links to the obituary on the host newspaper's website. Other listings include — in red — "Archived Notice - $". When you follow that link, you are taken to a Secure Order Page with a subheading "Archived Obituary Activation Notice". You will see what paper published the obituary, the first sentence of the obituary and the following notice: "To view the full text of this obituary along with a photograph (if available) and Guest Book (if available), please complete the form below. Your credit card will be charged $2.95 and the obituary will be available to you for one day." The archived notices don't seem to be based on how old they are and it's not clear how that works, but money seems to be the main theme.
From what I see, it appears Legacy.com has entered into some sort of relationship with these newspapers that allows it to 'host' all of these obituaries. In turn, it appears that Legacy.com uses the obituary in whatever commercialized manner that can generate the most revenue. Do newspapers have the legal right to 'sell' these obituaries that were created by funeral homes and families? Did the funeral homes and families grant Legacy.com or the newspapers permission to disregard copyright laws?
Legacy.com provides visitors with the opportunity to visit the gift shop to buy flowers, photo books, care baskets and 'unique remembrances'. There's also an opportunity to create a memorial website. For a limited time, you can pay $36.75 for a 1 year site. You pick the theme, choose music, set up an account and build the site. The memorial website can be set up by anyone for anyone. No controls as far as I can tell which certainly undermines the information most funeral home websites already provide as part of their services for families.
It didn't take long to locate another online directory, Tributes.com. Its home page — like that of Legacy.com — features obituaries and death notices of famous people. There's only one unrelated advertisement, which conveniently allows visitors to instantly find their credit score while searching for obituaries. The 'Obituary Search Center' will take you to a results page. I used the name William Smith, a relatively common name, and conducted a search for obituaries from the past 3 months. There were ten pages to view with a total of 91 notices. Some of the listings have obituaries while most have death records. Both provide the visitor with an opportunity to 'Upgrade William's Tribute' with an 'Unlimited Free Tribute', a 'Monthly Memorial Tribute' for $3.99 or a 'Monthly Commemorative Tribute' for $7.99. Essentially, you're building online memorial web pages that will feature more information as you spend more money.
What caught my attention even more than the so-called opportunity to memorialize a loved one was the fact that every listing containing only a death record provided very basic information. Here's an example: William H. Smith, 1942 — 2009, William was born on October 25, 1942 and passed away on Tuesday, June 9, 2009. William was last known to be living in Zionsville, Indiana. It then goes on to say, "If you knew William H. Smith then please let the family know that they can enter the full obituary here. This current obituary listing came to us from publicly available sources, but we would like to be able to include the full obituary and photos so that other people may enjoy the story of William's life." Publicly available sources?
Interestingly, the Tributes.com 'About' page offers the following information: "Tributes.com is the online resource for current local and national obituary news, lasting tributes celebrating the lives of loved ones, and an online community to provide support during times of loss and grieving. Founded by Jeff Taylor, the founder of world-renowned Monster Worldwide and eons.com, the online baby boomer community, the Tributes team is focused on making sure that through one centralized national web destination that obituary and service information are easily accessible and that there is a place for people of all ages to come together through online community to remember and to share the rich stories of the important people in their lives that have passed away." Only one of the five members of the executive team claims to be a licensed funeral director.
Out of interest, I located the website of one of the associated funeral homes. The site was attractive and offered visitors the opportunity to view an obituary and view/sign the Guestbook. When I clicked on the link to 'Add Photos, Video, Music', the link took me away from the funeral home's website to a page on Tributes.com where I was informed that for $250, the family could create an Eternal Tribute.
The Tributes.com website encourages funeral homes to register for free. Perhaps somewhere in the fine print during the registration process, funeral homes sign off on their rights to the obituaries they helped create. It says: "Tributes.com is joining forces with funeral homes across the country to re-define the obituary classifieds market." The Tributes.com website goes on to outline the benefits of becoming a member that include the ability to: "Offer your families more robust obituary products with national distribution; Create rich tributes at a fraction of traditional obituary costs; Develop a new revenue stream through tribute sales and other e-commerce options; Reach new customers with prominent promotion on every obituary you place on Tributes.com; Be a part of the new technology wave that is changing our industry." The last wave that I saw like this, crashed on shore with the dot-com era.
So essentially, Legacy.com tries to team up with newspapers that have not or cannot afford to do this on their own while Tributes.com tries to team up with willing or unsuspecting funeral homes. Both appear to be doing so to generate profit rather than provide a real service.
In my opinion, most community newspapers are more than adept at quickly publishing obituary and service details online, allowing anyone to effectively search and find information. While their 'print' future may be uncertain, they continue to focus on their online presence. The local newspaper, online or otherwise, — not some third party directory — will always be the option of choice for the public to learn about local and regional events, including deaths within the community. Anyone truly connected with the family knows where the death occurred and any genuine search can be performed immediately on a community newspaper's website. We have all seen the short rise and fall of most .com ploys and I don't see how this will be any exception.
It would seem logical that the newspapers would see the need to maintain a positive relationship with funeral homes. Funeral homes spend a great deal of money with the newspapers to place these notices and it doesn't make sense why the newspapers would be trying to undermine them. It would be a shame to see the funeral homes look to other sources to place obituaries. Everyone would lose.
In my opinion, newspapers and funeral homes should continue to work together. The death notice should include a link to the funeral home's website where the obituary and online tribute are available indefinitely, at no cost to view. These sites provide a dignified memorial and place to view the obituary, free of blatant and unrelated advertising. After a certain period of time, the newspapers could greatly reduce their costs of 'hosting' the obituaries, by providing basic information (name, date of death, city, etc.) about the deceased and a direct link to the associated funeral home. This seems like such a logical thing to do.
How are these dot-com companies, which appear completely unrelated to the funeral industry able to publish and archive (without authorization?) life stories and obituaries they obviously didn't create or author? Why are obituaries not protected by copyright laws? Do funeral homes and newspapers offer this information to these directories or do these directories simply copy information from newspaper and funeral home websites to make it appear that the families came to them with the information?
I'm offended by this concept and anyone who has lost a friend or family member should feel the same way. Shame on the participating funeral homes and shame on newspapers for allowing this to happen.