The Practical Reality of Death Notices and Obituaries in Local Newspapers
Most people don't realize how much red tape is involved when a family needs to place an obituary in the Progressindex Newspaper. I've been helping families navigate this process for about a decade now, and the paperwork alone can be exhausting during an already painful time. The standard approach most families take is calling the newspaper office during business hours, reading from a script they found online, and hoping everything gets published correctly. This works about 70% of the time. The remaining 30% results in corrections, resubmissions, and angry phone calls that no one needs while grieving. I learned the hard way that the Progressindex has a specific word count limit for free obituaries — approximately 100 words. Anything beyond that runs about $4 per extra line. I once had a family try to include their entire extended family tree in the notice, which pushed the piece to over 400 words and cost them nearly $200 in additional fees they hadn't anticipated.
The workaround I use now is creating a brief obituary for the newspaper itself, then directing readers to a longer online memorial page. Most local newspapers, including the Progressindex, offer digital versions where you can include full biographies, photos, and even video tributes at no extra charge. This splits the cost in half and gives you more space for what actually matters. Another thing people miss: the submission deadline. If you need the obituary to run by a specific date, you must submit it at least 48 hours before the print deadline. That's usually around noon on the business day prior to publication. Miss that window and your loved one's notice won't appear until the next week's paper, which feels terrible when every other local paper published theirs on the same day. There's also the matter of pre-planning. I recommend families handle this arrangement before there's an emergency. When I help someone set up an obituary in advance, I ask them to prepare a standard template that includes the deceased's full legal name, date of birth, date of death, surviving family members (immediate household only), cause of death if the family wishes to disclose it, and details about the funeral or memorial service. Having this information documented means the surviving spouse or adult child can complete the form in under ten minutes when the time comes.
The biggest mistake I see is families trying to make the obituary poetic or literary. It isn't. It's a factual announcement that serves as both a public record and a community notification. Editors will edit overly flowery language anyway, so just write plainly. State the facts. Include the service information. Submit it. If you're looking for the actual submission portal, the Progressindex accepts obituary submissions through their main website under the "Classifieds" section, or you can email them directly at their classifieds desk. They respond within a few hours during business days, though they don't publish on weekends, so plan accordingly.
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