What Post Journal Obituaries Actually Is
Post Journal is an online platform that lets you publish and share obituaries across multiple news outlets and local newspapers without going through each publication individually. You fill out a form with the deceased person's details, upload a photo, and the system routes the obituary to participating media partners. It handles the distribution, formatting adjustments for different publications, and basic analytics on views and shares. I've been using this for about three years now, mostly for friends and family who need obituaries done quickly while dealing with grief. The service costs between $50 and $150 depending on how many outlets you want it published in and whether you add a featured placement. Not cheap, but doing this manually across five or six newspapers would eat up two full days of phone calls and fax machines.
The Rise Of Post Journal Obituaries Today Revolutionizing The Way We Remember
The shift here is real and it has nothing to do with nostalgia. Ten years ago, obituaries were something you negotiated with a local paper's obit editor over the phone. You had a word limit, a price per line, and if your text didn't fit the layout, it got trimmed. Now the expectation is different. People want the obituary to live on the family's own page, shared across social media, syndicated to regional news sites, and preserved as a permanent digital record that survives beyond the print run. Post Journal sits in the middle of that change. It's not trying to replace Legacy.com or Ever Loved, but it fills a specific niche: people who want their obituary to appear in actual newsrooms, not just on memorial sites. That distinction matters because news sites carry more weight in terms of visibility and search engine results.
How The Process Actually Works
Here's the straightforward breakdown of what happens from start to finish when you use the platform: Step one: Create an account and click "Start a New Obituary." You'll enter the basic biographical information—full name, age, date of death, surviving family members, service details. There's a character counter that tracks your length. Most newspapers have a 200 to 400 word minimum and a 600 to 800 word maximum for standard placement. Going under usually means your piece gets bumped to a smaller section or rejected outright. Step two: Upload a photograph. This is where most people stall out. The platform recommends a high-resolution image, ideally 600 by 800 pixels minimum, in JPEG or PNG format. I learned the hard way that some newspaper partners will reject low-resolution uploads, and there's no automatic notification when that happens. I've had to track down which outlets rejected the photo and resubmit manually. Always check your email dashboard and the account activity log within 48 hours of submission.
Get the Full Details
Step three: Select your distribution targets. You can choose individual newspapers, regional news groups, or go with their recommended package. Their packages tend to cover about twelve to eighteen outlets in your area. The individual selection gives you more control but requires you to know which publications actually carry obituaries in your county. If you're in a rural area, the number of options drops significantly. Step four: Preview, pay, and submit. The platform generates a proof showing how the obituary will appear. Review it carefully for spelling mistakes, wrong dates, and formatting issues. Once submitted, most outlets run the piece within one to three business days. Some smaller papers may take up to a week. Step five: Manage the digital memorial page. Every obituary gets its own persistent URL where family and friends can leave condolences, share memories, and upload additional photos. This page stays online indefinitely unless you choose to take it down, which you can do from your account settings at any time.
Where People Mess This Up
I've seen the same mistakes happen repeatedly. The biggest one is rushing through the family list. You need the full names, relationships, and current locations of surviving immediate family—spouse, children, grandchildren, parents if still living. Omitted or misspelled names come back as corrections requests, which delay publication and sometimes anger the editors at the receiving newspapers. The second common error is picking the wrong photo. A blurry snapshot from a group event, a heavily filtered image, or a crop that cuts off half the face. Newspapers want clear, professional-looking headshots or well-composed portrait photos. If you don't have one, a decent phone camera photo taken against a plain background in natural light works fine. The third mistake is underestimating the word count. Write something short and punchy, thinking it'll get better placement. It won't. Most outlets have minimum lengths, and cutting it down means it goes into a general listings section rather than getting its own space with the photo prominent. Aim for 350 to 500 words for standard placement. That's enough to cover the essential life details without becoming a memoir.
One specific problem I ran into that took me two days to solve: I submitted an obituary with a military service section that used acronyms like "Vietnam Veteran" and "Korea Service Medal." The receiving outlet's automated system flagged the text for manual review because it didn't recognize the acronyms, and the obituary sat in a review queue for four days without any status update from Post Journal. The workaround was simple—spell everything out on the first submission. "Vietnam Veteran" becomes "served in the Vietnam War," and medal names get their full formal titles. It adds about twenty words but prevents the review bottleneck entirely.
Cost Breakdown and What You Actually Get
The pricing structure on Post Journal has three main tiers: The basic package runs around $50 and includes a digital-only obituary with a personal memorial page and sharing links. No print placement. This is fine if you only need an online record and plan to handle print separately through individual newspapers. The standard package is approximately $99 and covers distribution to eight to twelve newspapers or news sites in your selected region. You get the memorial page, social sharing tools, and a PDF proof before publication. This is the tier most people choose and it's the one that makes sense for typical use cases.
The premium package costs around $149 to $175 and adds featured placement options, wider regional distribution, and sometimes guaranteed publication within 48 hours. The featured placement means your obituary appears at the top of the obituaries section on partner sites rather than buried in the middle. It's a visibility play that matters if you want maximum reach during the first week after death, when most people are searching for information about the service. There are also add-ons like flower delivery coordination through their partner network, video tribute embedding, and long-term hosting extensions beyond the standard free period. These aren't necessary but they're convenient if you're managing everything from a distance.
Alternatives Worth Considering
Post Journal isn't the only option. Legacy.com is the largest player and has relationships with over 3,000 newspapers. It's more expensive on average but has broader coverage, especially in smaller markets where Post Journal might not have a partnership. If you're in a rural area or a smaller city, check Legacy first before committing to Post Journal. Ever Loved takes a different approach. It focuses heavily on the memorial page experience with rich media support, story timelines, and invitation management. It's better if the family wants a detailed, multimedia tribute rather than just a traditional obituary format. The tradeoff is less emphasis on news syndication. Your piece might look beautiful on Ever Loved but never appear in a single newspaper. Then there's the old-school route: contact newspapers directly. Some local papers still accept obituaries via email or their website with no third-party service involved. In many markets, the direct submission cost is lower because you're not paying a markup. The downside is the time investment. Calling or emailing five separate publications, tracking down their submission guidelines, and following up on acceptance—that's easily four to six hours of work during a period when nobody wants to be making phone calls.
Practical Tips That Save Time
Gather all the information before you start the form. Create a single document with the full name, maiden name if applicable, dates of birth and death, place of death, education, career history, military service, memberships, survivors, and predeceased relatives. Have the service location, date, time, and officiant ready. Keep a list of favorite photographs on your computer in a folder labeled clearly. Doing this prep work takes twenty minutes and prevents the awkward pause mid-process where you realize you don't know the spelling of your nephew's name or the exact address of the funeral home. Write the draft in a word processor first, not in the platform's form field. Copy-paste works fine, and it's easier to edit in a proper document with spell check and word count tracking. Then transfer it to the form once it's polished. The platform's text editor is basic and doesn't save drafts reliably. Submit at least 72 hours before the funeral if possible. Rushed submissions lead to mistakes, and newspapers operate on business day schedules. A Friday submission for a Monday service often means the obituary doesn't appear until Tuesday at the earliest.
Set up Google Alerts for the deceased person's name along with your city. This isn't paranoia. Occasionally, a local outlet will pick up the obituary independently and publish it without going through Post Journal's distribution. Seeing it shows up in your alert confirms everything worked as intended. If it doesn't appear within five business days, check your account dashboard and then contact their support team directly.
What the Platform Doesn't Do Well
The customer support response time is the most noticeable gap. Email responses typically take 24 to 48 hours, and there's no phone support. If you have an urgent issue on a Thursday evening before a weekend funeral, you're waiting until Monday. This isn't unique to Post Journal—most online obituary services operate on similar support models—but it's worth knowing before you commit. The analytics are basic. You get view counts and share numbers on your memorial page, but no demographic data, no geographic breakdown of who's reading, and no engagement metrics beyond clicks. If you need to know whether the obituary reached a specific audience or drove traffic to a donation page, you'll need to set up your own tracking links. Customization options beyond the standard template are limited. You can adjust colors slightly and add a few sections, but you can't redesign the layout or create a fully custom page. If you want something unusual—a military-themed template, a faith-based layout with specific scripture integration, or a bilingual presentation—you may need to work around the platform's constraints or go with Ever Loved instead.
There's also the question of permanence. Post Journal's terms state that memorial pages are hosted as long as the account remains active and fees are paid. If you stop paying for an extended hosting plan or let the account lapse, the page may be archived or removed. I'd recommend keeping a local backup of the final published obituary text and all associated photos on your own hard drive and cloud storage, regardless of what the platform says about permanent hosting. The service works. It does what it claims and it does it faster than handling obituaries manually. Just go in with clear expectations about what you're getting and what you're not. The people handling the grief don't need another unknown variable in the equation.
