Putting Together an Obituary for the Richmond Register
I spent several years doing editorial work at local newspapers before moving into digital publishing, and I watched the obituary process change from something you typed on a typewriter and stuffed into a newspaper clipping bin to a process that involves photo uploads, online guestbooks, and paid memorial packages that stretch across platforms. The Richmond Register still runs both print and digital versions, and navigating them correctly matters more than most people realize. The basic workflow is straightforward. You contact the Richmond Register's obituary desk, either by phone or through their website submission form. They'll send you a package of questions about the deceased, and you fill out the details: full name, age, city of residence, date of death, surviving family members, funeral service information, and a biographical sketch. For print, you're charged by the line or by column inch depending on the layout. Digital-only or extended online obituaries run on a different pricing tier that includes a perpetually hosted webpage. The part nobody warns you about is the photo submission process. I learned this the hard way when a family I was helping submit a photograph for their relative's obituary uploaded a JPEG that was 4.2 megabytes at 72 DPI. The system accepted it but rendered it as a muddy blob in the final publication. The workaround was running the image through a quick compression step in Photoshop using the Save for Web dialog, targeting around 150 DPI and under 500 kilobytes, then re-uploading. The difference between a clear portrait and an indecipherable gray smudge is usually just file size and resolution, not the quality of the original photograph itself.
Here is a practical breakdown of how the digital side works compared to what it used to be. Years ago, an obituary lived in the newspaper and that was it. If you wanted to share it, you photocopied the page and handed it out. Now the Richmond Register hosts the obituary on their website, and it stays there indefinitely. Families can add photo galleries, upload video tributes, and set up memorial pages where people leave comments. Some funeral homes partner directly with the paper to handle the entire digital setup as part of their service package, which saves the family a step but also means you're often working through a middleman who may not be fully familiar with the technical quirks of the submission system. There is a common misconception that submitting an obituary digitally means you do not need to worry about the print version. That is not accurate. If you want the obituary to appear in both the printed newspaper and on the website, you typically need to specify that explicitly when you submit. The default option on some submission forms is digital-only, and if you do not catch that before hitting submit, you will end up with a webpage but no print notice. I have seen this happen more than once. The fix is always the same: call the obituary desk immediately and request the addition. Most of the time they can accommodate it, but there may be an extra charge for the print placement. The pricing structure is another area where people get caught off guard. A standard print obituary in the Richmond Register runs roughly two to three hundred dollars depending on length, while a digital memorial page with an extended bio and photo gallery can cost anywhere from one hundred to four hundred dollars depending on the package you select. The most expensive option is a combination package that includes print placement, a multi-photo gallery, a video tribute, and a donation link for a charity. It is worth asking for a written breakdown before you commit, because the bundled price is often unclear in the initial conversation.
One thing I wish more families understood is how much control you actually have over the digital version after it is published. The Richmond Register allows certain edits within a window of time, usually twenty-four to forty-eight hours, after the obituary goes live. After that point, corrections require a phone call and may involve a fee. I once worked with a family who discovered a misspelled middle name six hours after publication. Because they caught it early, the desk was able to update the page without any charge. Had they waited until the next day, they would have been looking at a correction fee and a potentially awkward situation where half the people who read the obituary had already seen the error. The guestbook feature on the digital obituary is something to consider carefully. It allows anyone who finds the page to leave a message, which can be a meaningful way for distant friends and relatives to participate in the memorial. But it also means you are opening the page to unmoderated comments unless the family or funeral home sets up pre-approval for submissions. I saw a case last year where someone posted an offensive comment on a grandmother's obituary page, and the family had to contact the newspaper to have it removed. It was handled quickly, but the damage was done in the meantime. Setting up comment moderation upfront takes about five minutes and prevents that entire problem. If you are dealing with a situation where the deceased had a very public life or the family expects a large volume of online traffic to the obituary page, you should let the newspaper know in advance. The Richmond Register's system handles normal traffic without issue, but there are limits to how many photo views and guestbook entries the hosting platform can manage simultaneously. I recall one obituary for a well-known community figure that drew several thousand visitors in a single day, and the photo gallery slowed considerably because the system was not optimized for that kind of load. The paper eventually upgraded the hosting configuration, but it took about six hours to resolve, during which time the photos were unavailable.
Get the Full Details
For people who prefer to handle everything themselves rather than going through a funeral home, the Richmond Register does offer a self-service submission portal on their website. You can create an account, fill in the obituary details, upload your own photographs, and choose your preferred publication package. The interface is functional but not especially intuitive, and the validation rules are strict enough that you will likely get an error message at least once if you try to skip steps. I recommend filling out a draft in a word processor first, copying the text into the form, and double-checking every field before submitting. Rushing through the portal tends to result in typos and missing information that then require corrections after publication. Another practical detail that people overlook is the difference between an obituary and a death notice. An obituary is a fuller narrative piece that includes biographical information, personal anecdotes, and a photo. A death notice is a brief factual statement that typically includes only the basics: name, age, date of death, and surviving family. Death notices are cheaper and faster to produce, but they do not carry the same weight when it comes to honoring a person's life. If the goal is really to create something lasting and meaningful, an obituary is the better choice, even though it costs more. There is also the question of whether to include a QR code or social media link on the printed version of the obituary. The Richmond Register does not currently support QR codes in their print layout, but some families include a short URL that directs readers to the online memorial. I have mixed feelings about this approach. On one hand, it bridges the gap between print and digital. On the other hand, short URLs can look cramped in a print layout and may not render well if the newspaper's printing process compresses the text area. If you go this route, I would suggest placing the URL at the very bottom of the obituary where it will not interfere with the main content, and making sure it is accurate before submission.
The timeline for publication is another area where expectations often need adjusting. If you submit an obituary for same-day print publication, the deadline is usually mid-morning, and the digital version goes live a few hours later. For future-dated publication, you can schedule the obituary to appear on a specific date, which is useful if the funeral or memorial service is planned for a later time. The Richmond Register will hold the obituary and publish it on the scheduled date, but you need to confirm that the date is correct because changing a scheduled publication after it is locked in can be difficult. One final point that I think deserves more attention is the long-term preservation aspect. A digital obituary on the Richmond Register's website will remain accessible as long as the newspaper maintains its online archive, which is generally a safe assumption for a publication with their history. However, if the website undergoes a redesign or a migration to a new platform, there is always a small risk that older obituaries could become temporarily or permanently inaccessible. I recommended that families download a PDF copy of the published obituary and save it locally, along with any photographs that were uploaded. This takes less than ten minutes and ensures that the memorial content is preserved regardless of what happens to the website.
