Filing an Obituary Through the Savannah Morning News
The Savannah Morning News runs one of the more straightforward obituary processes on the East Coast, but there are enough moving parts that people still mess it up on their first try. The publication's obituary section, which brands itself as Savannah Morning News Savannah Ga Obituaries Honoring Lives Preserving Stories, handles both traditional print placement and online hosting. Understanding how the two systems connect is what separates a clean submission from a week of back-and-forth with the deaths editor. You have two entry points. The first is the newspaper's online submission portal at savannahnow.com/obituaries. The second is the standard funeral home routing, where your funeral director files directly. Most families end up at the online portal because the cost differential between a basic community listing and a full paid notice is steep enough that people want to control the text themselves. When you start the submission, you'll fill out a form that asks for the deceased's full legal name, date of death, age, surviving family members, and a short biographical paragraph. The character limit for the free community listing is roughly 150 words. If you want to go longer or add a photograph, that moves into paid territory. The current rate for a standard display obituary in the print edition plus the online page runs about $200 to $350 depending on length and whether you include a photo. Premium placement with an enlarged photo and top-of-page positioning pushes toward $500. These numbers shift slightly year to year, so I always verify with the deaths desk before advising anyone on budget.
Proof is the part people overlook. The newspaper requires you to review the submitted text before it goes to print, usually within 24 hours of submission during business hours. If you miss that window, your notice gets pushed to the next available printing cycle. I learned this the hard way when a client in mid-2023 submitted an obituary on a Friday afternoon, assumed the Saturday edition was locked in, and then discovered the newsroom had already gone to bed with a different layout. The notice ran Monday instead. Nothing catastrophic happened except the family missed the Saturday funeral reminder. But it was a costly lesson in how the production calendar actually works around the weekend. The workaround I use now is simple: submit by Thursday noon if you need Saturday or Sunday coverage, and always request a proof confirmation email before the window closes. The system will send you a PDF proof. Read it twice. Names of surviving siblings get typoed more often than any other detail, usually because the person filling out the form doesn't have the exact spelling of an out-of-state relative's name.
What You Need Before You Start
Have the following information ready before you open the submission form. You will not be able to pause and resume easily. Date and place of death. The exact date matters because the obituary runs on a specific edition. If the person died on a Tuesday but you want the notice in the Wednesday paper, that's straightforward. If they died on a Sunday evening and you want Friday coverage, you're already behind the schedule and need to call the deaths desk directly. Surviving family list. This includes spouse, children, grandchildren, and siblings. Predeceased family members are optional but almost always included. The deaths editor will remove anyone who doesn't fit the standard format, so get it right the first time.
Get the Full Details
Service details. Date, time, location of the funeral or memorial, and whether the service is public or private. The Savannah Morning News will print "private family service" if you specify that, which is the standard way to handle a closed ceremony without explaining why. Photograph. A clear headshot or formal portrait works best. The minimum resolution they accept is 300 dpi at the size you want it printed. Most people upload a phone photo that is 72 dpi and then wonder why it comes out blurry in the paper. The online version is more forgiving, but the print version will reject anything below that threshold.
The Counter-Intuitive Parts Nobody Tells You
One thing that catches people off guard is that the obituary is not the same as the death certificate. The newspaper does not verify the cause of death unless you explicitly include it. If you leave it out, it won't appear. If you include "cancer" or "heart failure," it stays. There is no editorial pushback on stating a cause of death plainly. That might seem obvious, but families sometimes spend hours debating whether to mention the cause, not realizing the decision is entirely theirs and the newsroom will run with whatever they submit. Another thing that is not widely known: you can reserve an obituary before the death occurs if you are preparing one for an elderly parent or a terminally ill relative. The deaths desk will hold the text and publish it on the day you specify after the passing. This is called a living obituary or pre-written notice, and Savannah Morning News accepts these. It saves enormous stress during an already chaotic window. You still need to provide the actual date and time of death before it publishes, but having the biographical text pre-approved means the only variable left is the moment of death itself.
Common Pitfalls That Slow Everything Down
The biggest bottleneck is the photo. I have seen submissions sit in queue for 36 hours because someone uploaded a JPEG that was too large or in the wrong color profile. The newspaper prefers sRGB JPGs under 5 MB. If you send a Photoshop file or a TIFF, they will reject it and email you back asking for a proper format. That adds a full day. The second biggest issue is the family list. People routinely forget a stepchild or an ex-spouse whom the deceased maintained a relationship with. The deaths desk will not remove anyone you list, but they also will not add someone you forgot. If a surviving sibling files a complaint after publication, you can request a correction, but corrections run as a separate small notice and cost extra. It is cheaper to get the list right the first time. A third pitfall is the service time. Writing "10 AM" is fine. Writing "10 in the morning" looks unprofessional in print. The editor will reformat it anyway, but it signals that the submission was rushed. Small details like that matter more than they should because they affect the tone of the entire piece.
Online-Only vs. Print: Which Makes More Sense?
The online obituary costs less and runs immediately. It stays on the Savannah Morning News website indefinitely and includes a guestbook where friends and family can post messages. The print version reaches an older demographic that still reads the morning paper seriously, especially in the coastal Georgia market where paper circulation skews older than the national average. If the deceased was primarily connected to the Savannah area, print carries weight. The paper still delivers to a significant number of households in Chatham County and the surrounding parishes. An online-only notice may reach fewer people in that specific geography. If the deceased lived elsewhere and only had ties to Savannah through family, the online version is sufficient and cheaper. I recommend doing both if the budget allows. The combined cost is usually under $400 for a standard-length notice with a photo. The print edition gets you the community presence. The online edition gets you the lasting archive and the guestbook functionality. They feed each other. People who see the print version often go online to leave a condolence message, which increases the visibility of the notice across social media when family members share the link.
What Happens After Publication
The obituary remains on the Savannah Morning News website permanently unless the family requests removal. Removal is allowed within 30 days of publication and requires a written request to the deaths desk. After 30 days, the notice becomes part of the archival record and cannot be taken down. This is worth knowing if there is any chance of family disagreement about the content. Clippings are available through the newspaper's archives department. You can order physical copies or request a digital PDF. The archive fee is modest, usually around $10 per copy, but turnaround is three to five business days. If you need the clipping for legal purposes, such as probate documentation, request it early and specify that it is for court filing so they prioritize the order.
A Practical Walkthrough
Go to savannahnow.com and navigate to the Obituaries section. Click "Submit an Obituary." Fill in the required fields. Upload your photo as an sRGB JPG under 5 MB. Write the biographical text. Keep it between 200 and 400 words for the standard paid notice. Include service details. Review everything. Submit. Wait for the proof email. Verify the proof. Confirm or request changes. The notice publishes on the agreed-upon date. You receive a confirmation email with the live URL. Share it with family. That is the process from start to finish, and it usually takes about 45 minutes of focused time if you have all the information ready beforehand. The only variable that changes the timeline is how complete your initial submission is. Every round of edits adds a half day. Prepare thoroughly and you are done in a day. Rush it and you are on the phone with the deaths desk for two.
