How to Navigate Timesdaily Obituaries Without Losing Your Mind
I spend way too much time helping people submit obituaries through Timesdaily. Not because I enjoy grief, but because the process is more complicated than it needs to be and most people waste hours figuring out what the site actually wants. The first thing you need to understand is that Timesdaily operates differently from legacy newspaper obituary desks. They have their own CMS, their own editorial standards, and their own pricing structure. If you are approaching this like you would submit to the New York Times or even a regional paper, you will run into problems immediately.
Timesdaily Obituaries Honoring Lives Preserving Stories And The Vital Role Of Remembering
Here is how the submission process actually works. You start at their obituary submission page, which requires you to create an account before you can draft anything. That is not optional. I once tried to work around it by contacting their customer support directly, thinking I could bypass the portal. They insisted I go through the form anyway. Took me another forty-five minutes just to resubmit the same content. Once inside the dashboard, you will fill out a biographical section, choose a package tier, and upload a photograph. The packages range from a basic text-only listing to full-page features with multiple images and a dedicated memorial page. The pricing is not fixed. It varies by market size and how much customization you request. Expect to pay between one hundred fifty dollars and eight hundred dollars depending on your choices. The photo requirements are strict. They want high-resolution JPEGs, no smaller than four hundred pixels on the shortest side, and preferably portrait orientation. I learned this the hard way when my client's submission got rejected because the image was in landscape format. The reviewer left a note that basically said we would need to re-upload before publishing could proceed. It added two days to the timeline.
What People Miss About the Editorial Review Process
Timesdaily does not just publish everything you send them. Every submission goes through editorial review. This is where most families get frustrated. The reviewers check for factual accuracy, appropriate tone, and compliance with their content guidelines. They will flag certain phrases, remove inflammatory language, and sometimes request clarification on dates or relationships mentioned in the obituary. One thing that surprises people is that Timesdaily retains the right to edit or abridge submissions without always consulting the family first. Their terms of service spell this out, but most readers skip past the fine print. I have seen entire paragraphs get trimmed because the editor determined they were redundant or contained information that could not be independently verified. The workaround is to keep your submission concise and focused. The tighter the draft, the less room there is for editorial intervention.
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A Specific Problem I Ran Into With Timeline Predictability
Last year I helped coordinate an obituary for someone whose passing was time-sensitive. The family wanted it published within forty-eight hours of death. Timesdaily advertises expedited processing as an option, but the reality is that expedited does not guarantee same-day or next-day publication. On that particular submission, the file landed in their queue on a Thursday afternoon. By Monday morning it had only reached the first stage of review. It published Wednesday. The expedite fee did not actually move the timeline as much as I thought it would. If you need something published on a specific date, do not assume the express option will deliver. Call their editorial desk directly before paying for expedited service. Ask what the current queue looks like and whether your target date is realistic given the day of the week. I wasted money on that upgrade and learned to verify processing times manually ever since.
Common Pitfalls That Will Waste Your Time
Using unverified information in the obituary is the fastest way to get your submission stuck in review. If you list a death date that does not match public records, or include a military rank without documentation, the editor will hold the piece until you provide proof. This is especially common when families include details from informal family stories that are not officially documented. Another frequent issue is duplicate submissions. If multiple family members try to submit the same obituary from different accounts, Timesdaily's system creates conflicts. You will end up with duplicate listings or one submission getting rejected outright. Make sure only one person is responsible for the submission, and cancel any other draft accounts before the first one goes live.
What Timesdaily Gets Wrong
Let me be clear about the shortcomings. Their search functionality is mediocre. Finding an old obituary by name can take forever because the site does not offer robust filtering beyond name and date. The archive is also not fully indexed in search engines, which means a lot of older content is essentially invisible unless you know exactly what you are looking for. If you are doing genealogical research, you will want to supplement Timesdaily with other sources like legacy.com or local newspaper archives. The customer support experience is inconsistent. Some regions have dedicated account managers who respond quickly. Others route you through a generic helpdesk that takes days to reply. This depends entirely on which market your obituary is targeting. Before you submit, check whether your local area has a named contact or if you are entering a support black hole.
Practical Advice for Getting It Right the First Time
Draft your obituary offline first. Put it in a word processor, write it, edit it, and then copy it into the Timesdaily form. This prevents you from losing everything if the site crashes or your session times out. Their editor does not auto-save reliably. Keep a copy of everything you submit. Timesdaily does not guarantee permanent retention of the original draft on your account. If you need to reference or republish the obituary later, having your own copy saves you from scrambling through archived pages. Read their current guidelines before starting. They update their content policies periodically without much announcement. What was acceptable six months ago might not be acceptable today. I have seen people resubmit because a phrase that was fine during a prior cycle suddenly violated a new policy against certain types of biographical claims.
The whole process usually takes between four and eight business days from submission to publication for standard packages. Expedited options can cut that down to two or three days in favorable circumstances, but never count on it. Budget your time accordingly, keep copies of all correspondence, and make sure your content is accurate before it leaves your hands.
