Guidelines for submitting obituaries

The News-Enterprise Obituary Guidelines   Effective July 21, 2008 Phone: (270) 505-1751 or (800) 653-6344, Ext. 8242 Fax: (270) 769-6965 E-mail: obits@thenewsenterprise.com   Submitting obituaries Obituaries and obituary photos must be submitted by 5 p.m. daily to be published the next day. The News-Enterprise does not publish a Saturday edition. Office hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.   Obituaries are accepted from the funeral home, crematory service or official organization that handled arrangements for the deceased’s burial, cremation or donation of the body to science. A family member or friend of the deceased may submit obituary information, but all obituaries should be verified through an official source such as a funeral home, crematory service or medical center before it will be published. Please include this contact information in submission, as well as contact information for the person submitting the obituary, if not a funeral home.   Obituaries should be typed or neatly handwritten. It is preferred that obituaries be submitted by e-mail. If e-mail is not available, obituaries will be accepted by mail, fax or hand delivery, but will not be taken by phone. Funeral homes, etc., should allow time for obit information to be verified (spellings, missing information, establishing local ties, etc.) by telephone or e-mail.   Please mark all obituaries as free or paid.   Submitting photos A paid obituary may include one recent photo of the deceased.   E-mailed photos should be sent as .jpg files. All hand-delivered photos will be scanned on site. If photos are to be returned, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope. All obits should indicate whether a photo will be included. For the best picture possible, e-mailed photos should have a resolution of 170 dpi or more.   Receipt verification Funeral homes and other sources submitting obituary information and photos should call The News-Enterprise to verify receipt. After processing, the composed obituary with listed charges will be faxed back to the funeral home to proofread for errors and keep for your records. The News-Enterprise staff makes every effort to fax back composed obituaries promptly.   Time zone information Please indicate time zone for the funeral and visitation. Funerals homes in the Central Time Zone will be marked with CST or CDT as appropriate. Time zone information designating the Eastern Time Zone may be included by request of the funeral home.   Corrections Call The News-Enterprise as soon as possible if an obituary contains an error. If an error published is the fault of The News-Enterprise, it will be rerun at no charge and may also include other changes. If an error published is the fault of the family or funeral home, it may be published again, but full charges will apply.   Free obituaries A free obituary will publish only once and will not include a photo. It can include the following:

• The deceased’s full name (nicknames and maiden names may be included), age, city/state of residence, former residence if not recently a local resident, date of death and place of death.
• Names of survivors in immediate family. If no immediate family survives, predeceased in immediate family may be listed. First and last names of survivors should be provided.*
• The time, day, date and location of the funeral and burial and all services. The funeral home’s name and location is included as “in charge of arrangements” if not otherwise listed.

  *Immediate family is defined as parents, spouse and children (including foster children or stepchildren) of the deceased. Ex-spouses will not be listed. Domestic partners are considered the equivalent of spouses. For infants and children younger than 18, surviving siblings will be listed.   Paid obituaries A paid obituary will appear as close to submitted as possible. It can include, but is not limited to the following information:

• The deceased’s full name (nicknames and maiden names may be included), age, city and state of residence, former residence if not recently a local resident, date of death and place of death.
• Biographical information including place of birth, parents, education, employment history, church and or civic organizaiton memberships, offices held, hobbies, etc.
• Predecessors in death
• Names and residences of survivors, which can include spouse, parents, children, siblings, in-laws, grandparents and extended family. Caregivers, romantic companions and devoted friends (including pets) can be included. First and last names of survivors should be provided.
• Time, day, date and location of the funeral and burial and all services. The funeral home’s name and location is included as “in charge of arrangements” if not otherwise listed.
• Time, day, date and location of visitation, prayer and/or other services.
• Expressions of sympathy and online condolences

  Paid obituaries not submitted in paragraph form will be formatted to the above general order.   Charges of paid obituaries will be determined by lineage. Cost is $3 per line of text after six lines. There is a $10 charge to include a photo. Paid obits will run once unless the funeral home requests more printings; charges will apply for each day the obituary runs.   All obituaries The following items apply to all obituaries.

• Current style guidelines will apply for specific items including:

             City and state (cities will not be abbreviated; states will be abbreviated according to AP style)

             Time, date and location

             Military and religious titles

•  A flag graphic will be included free of charge for all veterans.
• Survivors will be enumerated.
• Service information will be published free of charge up to the date of the services.
• The deceased’s name is listed both in the headline and the first sentence of the obituary. Nicknames, maiden names and middle names may be edited in headlines to fit the space.
• If requested by the family of the deceased or the funeral home, service information will not run in the obituary. In these cases, the obit may state that services are private, but it will list the name and location of the funeral home handling arrangements. The obituary can indicate if cremation was chosen or if the body of the deceased was donated to science.
• Obituaries may not include expressions of thanks. Those wishing to place thank-yous in The News-Enterprise will be directed to our classified advertising department.

  The News-Enterprise may edit any obituary for style, content, spelling, grammar, language, appropriateness and/or length.