Working With Press-Connects Obituaries: What You Actually Need to Know
I've been helping families and genealogy researchers navigate the Press-Connects obituary system for years now. It's a regional paper covering Fairfield and Litchfield counties, and their obituary process is not as straightforward as some people assume. Here is what you need to know before you go in blind. The basics: Press-Connects publishes obituaries submitted by funeral homes or directly by families. They run online at connecticuysun.com and in print on certain days. Obituaries cost money per line or per word depending on length, and photos add to the price. Standard pricing hovers around $400 to $900 for a typical piece, but it varies by length and whether you want a photo. The submission process usually goes through funeral homes that have established accounts. If you are a family member trying to submit independently, you will likely need to contact their advertising department directly. Call (203) 576-6100 or email obits@ctinsight.com. They do not accept obituaries through generic contact forms. Email is the only reliable way to reach the staff directly outside of phone hours.
Turnaround time is usually 24 to 48 hours for publication, but if you submit on a Friday evening, you are looking at Monday at the earliest. Holidays mess things up further. I learned this the hard way once when a family needed something published by Wednesday and we submitted Thursday night. The editor had already left. The obit ran the following Thursday instead. That is a full extra week of waiting for grieving people who wanted closure. Always submit by Tuesday at the latest if you need it that same week. One thing people consistently get wrong is the photo. Press-Connects requires high-resolution images, ideally 300 DPI or higher. Sending a phone picture that is two years old and has been screenshotted multiple times will get rejected or pixelated in print. Use the best photograph you have. Funeral directors often have good ones from the visitation. If you do not have anything, a recent headshot or even a scanned Polaroid works better than nothing. Another edge case nobody warns you about: the difference between an obituary and an acknowledgement notice. If someone passes away and the family just wants to thank people for flowers or donations, that goes under acknowledgement notices, not obituaries. They have separate categories, separate pricing, and different word limits. Mixing them up just delays everything because the editor has to sort it out. I have seen families resubmit the same text three times before someone caught that they put an acknowledgement in the obituary slot. Keep them separate from the start.
If you are doing genealogy research, Press-Connects archives go back to the early 2000s online, with some print archives dating further. The search function is decent but basic. You can search by name, date range, and keyword. It will miss variations of surnames sometimes. I usually search with wildcards or try alternate spellings if the first result is empty. The staff cannot help you dig through old archives by phone because they are handling current submissions, so patience is required there. There is a limitation worth noting upfront. Press-Connects does not publish every obituary that comes through. They reserve the right to edit or decline content, and they will cut fluff or remove anything they consider inappropriate for their audience. This means your carefully written piece might come back with edits you did not approve. Some families get upset about this, but it is standard practice for any local paper. You can fight the edits, but the editor usually wins unless you have a very specific reason tied to factuality or sensitivity. For those wanting to preserve an obituary long-term, take a screenshot or PDF immediately after it publishes. Online content occasionally gets migrated or reformatted during website updates. I lost track of a few obituaries this way when the site restructured in 2023. Having your own copy prevents scrambling later.
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Bottom line: call ahead, submit early, use a real photo, keep acknowledgements separate, and save your copy. It is not complicated work, but the small mistakes add up quickly when you are already dealing with a loss.
