Impact of newspaper deliveries and funerals

In response to the downturn in the economy, some newspapers will not longer deliver to subscribers’ homes on a daily basis.  For example, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press will deliver only three days a week.

The impact of reduced home delivery on funerals is discussed in Jeffrey Zaslow, Why You Don’t Want to Die on a Sunday in Detroit, Wall St. J., Feb. 11, 2009:

[R]eaders who’ve made a daily ritual of perusing obituaries with their morning coffee — and who won’t go out to buy the paper or go online — aren’t necessarily going to learn about the deaths of their acquaintances.

“We’ll have to go back to word of mouth,” says David Techner, funeral director at Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield, Mich. “We’ll try to condition people: ‘Make sure you call all your mom’s friends to say she died.’ ” * * *

Expectations aren’t high that casual obit readers who are young or middle-aged will immediately make a habit of going online every day to find death notices. And no one is predicting that older people who aren’t computer-literate will suddenly start logging on. “I recognize that this will be disruptive to older citizens,” says David Hunke, publisher of the Free Press. But, he adds, “I can’t drive the paper to your home every day and maintain this business model.” * * *

Until people in Michigan make a routine of checking online obits, funeral homes are asking grieving families to spread news of deaths by creating extensive lists for phone calls, email blasts and Facebook messages. At the same time, there are calls for people to be philosophically proactive.

Special thanks to Patrick S. Sylvester (Attorney & Counselor at Law, Sylvester Law Firm, PC) for bringing this article to my attention