Getting Started With Pressconnects Digital Memorials
Pressconnects is the digital presence for the Connecticut Newspaper Group. Their obituaries section runs through PressReader and a custom platform that pulls traditional print submissions alongside online memorials. The full product is sometimes branded as Pressconnects Obituaries Honoring Lives Connecting Communities Through Digital Memorials, which is mostly marketing copy plastered on their landing pages. What you actually get is a website where families can publish an obituary, upload photos, and optionally run a keepsake book order through a third-party vendor. The standard route is to submit an obituary through the Pressconnects obituary page. You fill out a form with biographical details, survivor information, service details, and a short biography paragraph. Then you upload photos. The article goes to an editor for review, which typically takes 24 to 48 hours depending on volume. If it clears, it publishes online and may also run in the print edition if one was selected and paid for. There is also a direct phone submission option. Calling the obituary desk lets you dictate the content and have a staff writer format it for you. This is genuinely useful if you are dealing with a complicated family structure or multiple generations of survivors to list. The downside is that phone lines during peak hours can hold you for 15 to 30 minutes. My rule is to call right after they open at 8 AM to avoid the rush.
Cost structure and what you actually pay for
Online-only obituaries on Pressconnects typically start around $89 to $129 depending on photo count and whether you add a memorial video. Print obituaries are priced by column inch and can run several hundred dollars for a full-page notice. The real expense most people hit is the keepsake memory book. That is handled by an outside vendor, usually something like iMemories or similar. Those books range from $89 to $250 or more depending on page count. The vendor will reach out to you after the obituary is published to coordinate the book order. If budget matters, stick to the online obituary with up to five photos included. Adding more photos usually costs an extra fee per image. Skip the memory book unless someone in the family specifically wants a physical product, because the sales call that follows can feel aggressive and time-consuming.
A specific problem I ran into and how I fixed it
Last year I helped a family publish an obituary where the deceased had two last names used throughout their life, plus a former spouse's surname that appeared on legal documents. The submission form only has one field for the full name. I filled it in with the primary name, but the editor's fact-check pulled up conflicting Social Security records and nearly rejected the piece. The workaround was straightforward: I called the obituary desk directly, explained the situation, and provided a signed affidavit from the estate executor confirming the name variations. The editor accepted it within a few hours and the piece went live without further delay. Going forward I always gather name documentation upfront if there is any ambiguity about the deceased's legal name history. Pressconnects does something right that smaller local sites struggle with: syndication. When an obituary publishes on Pressconnects, it often gets picked up by Funeral.com and other memorial aggregators automatically. This gives the piece much wider reach than a standalone funeral home website ever would. That is genuinely valuable for families with scattered relatives who may not check a single local paper's site. The downside is that once published, editing is a pain. You cannot simply log in and change a typo. You have to contact the obituary desk again, wait for approval, and hope no one has already shared the link widely. I had a case where a misspelled middle name sat uncorrected for three days because the family assumed they could fix it themselves online. By the time we caught it, over 400 people had viewed the page and shared it on social media. The correction published but the broken links lingered on a few external sites.
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Another issue worth noting: the photo upload system is picky. It rejects files over 5 MB and does not handle HEIC format from newer iPhones without conversion. I always convert photos to JPEG and resize them to under 3 MB before uploading. Trying to debug this after submission wastes time you do not have during a funeral week.
When Pressconnects is the right choice and when it is not
If your family is in the Connecticut area and you want local paper credibility plus broader digital reach through syndication, Pressconnects is a solid option. The editorial review process means fewer errors slip through compared to purely self-serve platforms. For families outside the coverage area, the syndication still helps but the local relevance drops significantly. In that case, a national platform like Legacy.com or a dedicated memorial site might serve you better without the regional constraints. Pressconnects also requires a minimum subscription to their news site for full access to some features. If you are only publishing an obituary and will never return, that is unnecessary overhead. The free guestbook feature is available to everyone regardless of subscription status, but interactive elements like comment moderation and photo gallery management are restricted to subscribers.
