Filing an Obit With the Post-Tribune: What Actually Happens
The Post-Tribune runs out of Merrillville and covers much of Lake County, Indiana. If someone in that area has died, the family will usually consider placing an obituary there because that is where the local readers are. The process is straightforward but has a few wrinkles that trip people up if you have never done it before. I worked in newspaper admissions for several years, and the main thing I learned is that obit deadlines are not flexible. The paper publishes Monday through Saturday, and evening editions have a hard cut-off time. If you miss it, your story sits until the next available slot. That means weekends can swallow a placement you were counting on for a Friday service.
Post Tribune Obits Honoring Lives Preserving Legacies Through Timeless Obituaries
The Post Tribune treats obituaries as both a public notice and a community archive. That dual purpose shapes how they edit and what they run. They want factual accuracy, they want names spelled correctly, and they want the text to fit whatever length tier the family selects. They do not ghostwrite. They do not rewrite someone's life story into a marketing piece. You submit the content, they format it, and they charge by the line or by the length tier. Here is the practical way to handle it. You need the exact full name of the deceased, including any middle names or suffixes like Jr. or III. You need the date of death, age, and usually the city or town of residence at the time. You need a brief bio that covers education, career, military service, memberships, and surviving family. You also need contact information for the person authorizing the placement, because the admissions desk will call to verify details if anything looks off.
I once had a family submit an obit where the deceased's name appeared as "Robert Lee Smith" in the body but "Bob Smith" in the phone number field. The admissions editor flagged it and called the daughter. She clarified that Bob was correct and Lee should be dropped from the published version. We caught it because the discrepancy was visible on the proof. That kind of detail matters. A name mismatch on a proof is an easy fix. A name mismatch after the paper prints is not. The submission itself usually goes through the Post-Tribune website or by phone to their advertising or obit desk. The online portal lets you fill in fields and upload a photo. You get a proof within a few hours if you submit before the cutoff. If you submit after the cutoff, you wait until the next business day. Phone submissions are faster for simple cases but they do not include photo uploads unless you email the image separately. Pricing depends on length. A standard short obit might run around two hundred to three hundred dollars. A longer narrative with multiple photos costs more. If the family wants an expanded obit that reads more like a memorial essay, the price jumps. There is no hidden fee, but the cost can surprise people who assume newspapers charge by the word like a magazine. They do not. They charge by column inch or by tier.
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The photo matters more than most families realize. The Post-Tribune typically requires a digital image in JPEG or PNG format. It needs to be at least six hundred pixels wide and preferably higher resolution. A phone photo taken from a distance will look soft when printed. I have seen families resent that later, so I always tell them to scan a physical photo at three hundred dpi or use the highest resolution file they can find. The image gets printed in black and white in the paper version, so color correction is less critical, but sharpness is still important. One counter-intuitive point that beginners miss: shorter obituaries often get read more thoroughly than longer ones. People flip through the obit section quickly. A tight two-hundred-word piece with clear facts tends to land better than a five-paragraph narrative buried under dense text. If the goal is for relatives and acquaintances to actually read it and find the service details, lean concise. Save the extended memoir for a paid tribute or a website post. Another nuance is the handling of sensitive information. The Post-Tribune will not publish the exact street address of the family home. They will list the funeral home and the service location. If you want to include a private address for mail purposes, that does not belong in the newspaper. Use a P.O. box or direct people to the funeral home contact instead. The paper's policy on this is strict, and they will redact it during editing regardless.
There is also the matter of religious and military honors. If the deceased served in the military, you can include branch, rank, and years of service. The Post-Tribune accepts that without extra certification in most cases, but they may ask for documentation if the claims seem exaggerated. Same with religious affiliations. Listing a church is fine. Claiming a specific order or medal without context can trigger a verification call. Keep it factual and verifiable. If you need an expedited placement, call the desk directly rather than using the online form. Phone requests get prioritized because the staff sees them immediately. This cuts the proof turnaround from several hours down to maybe thirty minutes during business hours. Outside business hours, you are stuck with the queue. The downside of the Post-Tribune's system is that it is not instant. Even with a phone call, you will wait for the proof. If the family is coordinating a same-day service, this is not the right tool. In those cases, a funeral home website, a social media announcement, or a local community newsletter moves faster. The Post-Tribune is for planned, dignified placement, not emergency notices.
Another limitation is geography. The Post-Tribune reaches Lake County and parts of neighboring areas, but if the deceased lived primarily in Cook County or another region, the readership may not match where the family's network actually is. In that situation, a Chicago Tribune obit or a regional paper might serve the audience better. The Post-Tribune is excellent for its core market, but it is not a blanket solution for all of northern Indiana or the Chicago suburbs. Proofreading your own submission before it hits the desk saves everyone time. Check the spelling of every name, especially siblings and in-laws. Verify dates. Confirm the service time and location match what you intend. Once the proof is approved, changes are possible but they may incur an amendment fee or push the piece to the next available issue. A small typo like a transposed number in a birth year is common, and the desk will usually catch it, but not always. The online portal keeps a copy of your submission and the final proof for your records. Print or save that PDF. It is useful for future reference, for genealogical research, or if any family member disputes what was published later. The paper does not archive every submitted draft indefinitely, only the final version that ran.
If you want the obit to include a link to a memorial website or a livestream of the service, the Post-Tribune may or may not support that depending on the current format. Some editions allow a short web link in digital-only placements. Print editions do not include hyperlinks. Check with the admissions editor before you rely on that. It is an easy assumption to make and an easy one to get wrong. The bottom line is that the Post-Tribune obit process is standard newspaper procedure with local sensibilities. Submit accurate details, choose the right length tier, provide a clean photo, and request a proof. If you follow those steps, the placement goes smoothly. If you rush or skip verification, you will deal with delays and corrections. That is just how newspaper admissions works.
