Writing Obituaries for the News Tribune in LaSalle, Illinois
I grew up reading these obits every Sunday. My grandmother made sure I did. Not because she liked morbid stuff, but because she thought knowing who was gone helped you understand who was still here. The News Tribune obituaries have always been more than just a listing. They are a local record. A community archive. And if you have ever tried to write one for someone you actually cared about, you know how hard it gets. The process starts with calling the paper. The current number for the News Tribune is (815) 223-7400. They accept submissions by phone, email, or through their website at news-tribune.com/obituaries. You will need the full legal name, date of death, age at passing, a short biographical sketch, surviving family members, and details about the service. Most people submit within three to five days of the funeral. Late submissions sometimes get pushed to the next available page, which matters if you want the obit to appear alongside the actual service date. I learned this the hard way in 2019. My uncle passed on a Thursday. We submitted the obit Friday afternoon, assuming it would print Saturday. It did not. The deadline for Saturday's edition had closed at noon that same day. The paper had already gone to print. I ended up waiting until Monday, which felt wrong. We should have known. The cutoff time is strict, and unlike some outlets, the News Tribune does not publish twice a week. They run obits daily. Knowing that schedule change your approach.
Here is what most people miss about writing these obituaries. The News Tribune charges by the line or by the column inch, depending on how you structure it. A standard obit runs about two hundred to three hundred words and costs roughly sixty to one hundred dollars. Going longer adds up fast. I have seen people blow two hundred dollars on a single obit because they did not count the cost upfront. Ask for a price estimate before you finalize the text. Do it over the phone. Write it down. They will tell you exactly how much it will run based on word count. The biographical section is where most submissions feel flat. People list the facts without any texture. Survived by wife, mother, two children. The paper prints it. But readers remember the version that includes what the person actually did. My neighbor's father was a line foreman at Caterpillar for thirty-one years. The obit mentioned the job title but left out that he trained over four hundred apprentices. That detail changed how the whole community read it. Suddenly the obit was not just a notice. It was a record of influence. If you want the obit to feel like more than a template, include one specific memory. A hobby. A habit. The way someone took their coffee. Something that makes the person real to someone who never met them. These obituaries get shared on Facebook. They get read by cousins who moved away decades ago. That extra sentence does more work than another paragraph of surviving relatives.
Sometimes the process breaks down because of missing information. A common problem I see repeatedly is incomplete survivor lists. People forget siblings who died years ago, or they leave out stepchildren without meaning to. The News Tribune does not verify family details. They print what you send. If you are unsure about a relationship, check the death certificate or ask another family member before submitting. Getting it wrong means you either run a correction later, which costs extra, or you live with the omission forever. Another edge case is handling nontraditional families. Blended families, chosen family, close friends who raised the person. The traditional obit format assumes a nuclear structure. It does not have to work that way. I once wrote an obit for a man whose partner of forty years was never on his legal documents. We listed him as surviving family anyway. The paper printed it without issue. Do not assume the format limits what you can include. Write what is true. The Tribune has printed unconventional family structures for years. They are not going to reject something because it does not fit the old model. Photos are an option but not required. If you want to include one, the News Tribune accepts JPG and PNG files up to five megabytes. The resolution should be at least two hundred fifty DPI for print quality. Send it with the obit submission. The editorial team will crop and position it. You do not need to worry about layout specs. Just make sure the image is clear and recent enough that people actually recognize the person.
Get the Full Details
There are limits to what these obituaries can do. They cannot capture everything. They cannot replace a eulogy. They are a notice first and a tribute second. Some people feel pressured to make the obit do emotional work it was never designed to do. It will not. Write the facts. Include what matters. Let the funeral and the memorial do the rest. If the News Tribune is not the right outlet for your needs, consider alternatives. The Rock River Times covers parts of LaSalle County and accepts obituaries at rrtimes.com. The Chicago Tribune has a larger reach if the deceased had connections outside the county. Digital-only memorials through services like Forever Keepsake give you more space and multimedia options, though they lack the permanence of a printed newspaper record. Each option has tradeoffs. Pick the one that fits the person and the family's priorities. The submission process itself is straightforward. Go to the News Tribune obituary page, fill in the form, attach the photo if you have one, and review everything before hitting submit. You will get a confirmation email within minutes. If you do not, call the office. The staff is generally responsive during business hours, Monday through Friday, eight to five. Weekends are hit or miss.
One thing worth noting is that the News Tribune archives online indefinitely. Every obit published goes into a searchable database. This matters if you plan to look up records later. A printed clipping fades. The digital version stays. I have used the archive to trace genealogy for clients and family members. It is a reliable resource, though the search function can be clunky if you do not know the exact spelling of the name. Try variations. Try nicknames. Try the middle name instead of the first. The cost remains the biggest practical concern for most families. Budgeting for funeral expenses already stretches people thin. An obit is a small line item, but it adds up if you also pay for flowers, a headstone, and a reception. Keep the obit tight. Two hundred words is usually enough. Anything beyond that is optional. There is no requirement to fill space. A shorter, sharper obit often resonates more than a long one that repeats itself. I have watched this process evolve over twenty years. Thirty years ago, you called the paper and dictated the text over the phone. The operator typed it up. There was no preview. You trusted them to get it right. Now you submit electronically and review the draft before it goes live. That is progress. But the core task has not changed. Someone died. The community needs to know. The obit is how you tell them.
If you are writing one right now, take a breath. It is harder than it looks. Get the facts straight. Include something that sounds like the person. Submit it promptly. Then focus on the people around you. The paper will handle the rest.
