Writing a Proper Obituary for Rapid City Journal: A Practical Guide

The Rapid City Journal runs obituaries out of their main desk on Phillips Avenue. They accept submissions through their website or by email, but the process is tighter than most papers let on. I learned this the hard way when I tried to submit one during a busy weekend. There are two ways to get an obituary into the paper. The standard route costs $175 for a printed obituary of up to 200 words. Anything over that runs $1.50 per word. If you want it online only, they occasionally run them free depending on space, but don't count on that. Their website is rapidcityjournal.com, and they have a specific obituary submission form under the "Life Stories" section. The real issue nobody mentions is timing. If someone passes midweek, you have maybe 48 hours before the editorial team moves on to other stories. I had a case where my brother died on a Thursday evening, and by Friday morning the standard obituary slot was already filled. We ended up paying extra for next-day placement, which cost us about $250 total. Nothing against the paper, but it catches people off guard when grief happens faster than news cycles.

Here is what the submission form actually asks for and what you should prepare ahead of time:

  • Full legal name of the deceased (including maiden name if applicable)
  • Date and location of birth
  • Date and location of death
  • Surviving family members with relationships and locations
  • Predeceased family (optional but traditional)
  • Biographical sketch of major life events
  • Service details (date, time, location)
  • Donation preferences or flower requests
  • One high-resolution photograph if you want one included

I spent about three hours getting that photo right. The Journal requires at least 300 DPI and a minimum width of 600 pixels. My first upload kept getting rejected because I sent a compressed JPEG from iMessage. I ended up opening the original in Photoshop, resizing to exactly 1200 pixels wide, saving as PNG, and resubmitting. Took another four hours of back-and-forth with the layout team. Most people mess up the family listing. The paper wants survivors listed in a specific order: spouse first, then children, grandchildren, parents, and so on. If you just dump a list alphabetically or randomly, they will send it back. I saw one obituary that got returned twice because the writer put "survived by his dog, Buster" before his wife's name. Pedantic, sure, but it costs you a day. Another issue is the spelling of names and places. One submission I handled had "Pierre" misspelled as "Peire" and the entire family line got flagged for verification. The typesetter would not guess. They call the funeral home directly, which delays publication until someone picks up the phone. During business hours this is fine. On a Sunday, you are waiting until Monday morning.

How to Actually Get It Right the First Time

Start with the funeral home. Most places in the Rapid City area have pre-written obituary templates they use daily. Call them and ask if they already have a draft. If not, get the biographical facts directly from the death certificate and social security record rather than guessing. The Journal cross-checks these things, and corrections after publication cost extra. For the biographical section, keep it factual. "Born in 1948 in Rapid City, South Dakota, he graduated from Jackson High School in 1966 and worked at the Custer State Park welcome center for twenty-three years until his retirement in 1989." That kind of thing. Specific dates and places matter more than emotional language here. People read these to verify information, not to feel things. The emotional content belongs in the family memory book, not the newspaper text. If you need to shorten a long life story, cut the jobs section first. Employment history takes up half the word count in most obituaries and very few readers care about every position someone held since 1982. Keep the notable achievements and summarize the rest.

What Happens After You Submit

Expect a confirmation email within two hours during business days. If you do not get one, call the obituary desk directly at 605-394-4411. Their desk hours are roughly 8 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday. Weekends are staffed but slower, and you will get voicemail more often. The proof stage is where most problems surface. They send a PDF proof to your email, usually the same business day if submitted before noon. You have four hours to review and approve. Do not skip reading the proof carefully. I once had a typo where "beloved husband" became "beloved hushband" and we caught it only after the deadline had passed. The paper would have run it anyway since corrections cost money. We ate the mistake. Publication typically happens the next morning. Digital copies appear on rapidcityjournal.com around 6 AM Central Time. The printed version comes out that evening or the following morning depending on when you submitted. If you need it in the same day, you pay a rush fee that runs about $75 extra on top of the standard charge.

Online-Only Options and What They Miss

The Journal now offers memorial pages that live permanently on their website. These are different from the printed obituary. You can include more photos, longer tributes, and a comments section where people leave messages. The tradeoff is that the printed version gets far more visibility in the community. Most older readers in the area still buy the physical paper. I recommend doing both if the budget allows. The print version reaches people who would not otherwise know. The online version gives you a permanent archive with the photo gallery intact. Combined cost for both is usually around $275, which includes the basic photo for the print edition and up to five photos for the online memorial.

When the Journal Is Not the Right Choice

If the deceased lived outside Pennington County for most of their life, consider whether the Rapid City Journal is the right paper. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader or the Pierre Union-Capital may have better reach for their community. The Journal serves the western part of the state primarily. Sending an obituary to a paper that does not match the family's geographic base means fewer people will see it. There is also the matter of obituary aggregators. Sites like Legacy.com pull from newspaper sources, but they do not always include Rapid City Journal content accurately. I have seen names get merged incorrectly and dates shift by a year when the syndication feeds processed them. If you want a permanent online record, post directly to the journal's own memorial platform rather than relying on third-party aggregators to preserve the details correctly. The whole process takes roughly three to five hours from start to finish if everything goes smoothly. If you hit the common pitfalls, it can stretch to a full day. Having all the biographical data typed out before you begin cuts that significantly. Most of the time people waste is hunting for documents, not writing the actual obituary.