Saturday, March 25, 2006

Daily obit updates helpful in small communities

The new website for the Lamar Democrat has been a success, judging from comments I heard about it during a visit to the city Monday.
When the Democrat went from daily publication to weekly 25 years ago, one of the biggest complaints readers had was that sometimes by the time they knew someone had died, the funeral had already taken place.
Even when the newspaper went to twice-weekly publication in 1983, the problem didn't completely vanish. Now, thanks to the miracles of the Internet, the Democrat has been able to serve its readership with a daily updating of obituaries, as well as any major events that take place that cannot wait until the next updating.
Those are moves that put the Democrat ahead of most weekly newspapers, most of which either only update whenever the next print edition is published, or do not have websites at all.

No comments: