Getting Your Loved One's Notice Into the Right Pages
When someone close passes away in the La Crosse or St. Croix Valley area, the first thing most people deal with is figuring out how to get the notice into print. There are a dozen different outlets, each with their own submission windows and formatting rules. The Superior Daily Telegram is one of the older papers in northern Wisconsin, and they run obituaries daily. It sounds simple, but the actual process has enough quirks that I've helped at least a dozen families get it right after watching others waste time and money on rejected submissions. The paper's obituary desk runs on a tight schedule. Notices submitted before 2 PM Central get considered for next-day publication. Anything after that pushes into a holding queue, and depending on how many pieces you've got waiting, you're looking at two to three days before print. That delay matters when people are trying to plan visitation or funeral services. You don't want guests showing up to a church before the notice has actually gone out.
Superior Daily Telegram Obituaries Dont Let Their Light Fade Remember Wisconsins Best
The phrasing above is one of the tags that shows up in their submission system. It's not a headline. It's more of an internal category label the typesetter sees. Don't try to use it as your own headline or submit it as the family's message. Just let the system handle that part. What matters is getting your actual content structured correctly before you hit submit. I learned this the hard way back in 2019. A friend of mine from Duluth called me because his father's obituary had been returned twice. The submission portal kept rejecting it with a generic error message about improper formatting. We eventually tracked it down to the fact that he'd pasted the notice as a Word document attachment instead of entering it directly into the text box. The system wanted plain text only. The second submission went through cleanly once we switched formats. The moral is straightforward: copy and paste into the field. Don't upload files unless the portal explicitly asks for them. The fee structure is another thing worth knowing before you spend an hour writing a lengthy memorial. The Telegram charges by the line for the main obituary, and they have a minimum. As of the last pricing I checked, a standard notice runs around four to six lines before it gets expensive. Extensions beyond that cost extra per line. If your family wants a longer piece with photos or additional biographical detail, you're looking at a significantly higher bill. I've seen notices for the same person run the gamut from a basic one-page listing to a full-column spread depending on what the family prioritized. There's no wrong answer there, but budget matters.
One counter-intuitive detail that catches people off guard is how much the editor's office will actually change your wording. You might spend two hours drafting the perfect paragraph about someone's military service or volunteer work, only to have it trimmed down to three sentences in the final print version. The paper has a style guide, and they enforce it. They won't ask permission before shortening a rambling sentence or removing certain phrases. This isn't cruelty. It's consistency across the board. If you need something specific included verbatim, state that clearly when you submit. Put a note at the top like, "Please include this line exactly as written." Editors generally respect that request unless it conflicts with their policy. Another nuance people miss is the distinction between an obituary and a death notice. An obituary is a full written piece, usually several paragraphs, with personal details and surviving family members. A death notice is shorter, often just a few lines stating the name, age, date of passing, and funeral arrangements. Death notices are cheaper, but they don't carry the same weight. Families sometimes opt for the notice to save money, then regret it when distant relatives or colleagues feel left out because they never saw the fuller story. My take is this: if you can afford the obituary, go with it. It serves more people. Photographs are another angle worth considering. The Telegram accepts photo submissions for obituaries, but the requirements are strict. The image needs to be high resolution, ideally 300 DPI or above. A blurry headshot from someone's phone will either get rejected or print poorly. I recommend scanning a physical photo or using a good camera app with the right settings. The file should be JPEG or PNG, and the naming convention matters less than the actual quality of the image. Once it's in the system, you'll be asked to confirm placement, which usually runs along the side or top of the notice.
Get the Full Details
Timing interacts with holidays and weekends in ways that aren't always obvious. If someone passes on a Friday evening, the notice might not run until Tuesday. That's because the paper doesn't publish on Sundays, and the Thursday edition could be affected by a holiday schedule. I always suggest families aim for midweek submissions when possible. It reduces the risk of an extended delay eating into planning time for services. If the timeline is tight, call the obituary desk directly. They can sometimes expedite or provide a better estimate for when the notice will actually appear. The submission portal itself is straightforward but not without friction. You create an account, fill in the deceased's information, write or paste the notice, upload a photo if you're doing one, and confirm the details before paying. The payment goes through credit card, and you'll get a confirmation email with a preview. Always check that preview before it locks in. I've caught typos in names and wrong dates that would've been embarrassing if they'd gone to print uncorrected. Once the notice is published, corrections are possible but they cost extra and delay the next day's version. There are also alternatives if the Telegram isn't the right fit for your situation. The Duluth News-Tribune covers a wider regional audience. The La Crosse Tribune serves the southern part of the state. Some families choose to place notices in multiple papers, especially when the deceased had connections across different communities. Each outlet has its own submission process and pricing. The general principle holds: submit early, verify the preview, and plan around the publication timeline.
One final practical point: keep a copy of everything. Save the confirmation email, screenshot the preview, and note the date and page where the notice ran. It sounds minor, but those records matter for genealogy research, insurance paperwork, or any legal process that requires proof of publication. I've had people track down old obituaries years later using the exact page number and date from their saved email. It's a small step that pays off when you need it.
