Approximately seven weeks ago, the Globe stopped posting obituaries and death notices (the notices include the name, address and funeral service information) and only put the name. If you wanted more information, you had to either be a subscriber to the Globe's print edition or be willing to subscribe to the e-edition.
I wrote about the change in the June 5 Turner Report:
Now if you visit the Globe website and want to know when or where a funeral is going to take place, you have to either be a subscriber to the print edition or to the Globe’s e-edition. It doesn’t matter if you are a friend or family member from out of state who has no connection with Joplin and no need for subscribe to a Joplin newspaper, if you don’t, you’re out of luck.
The timing was bad for the hard working staff at the Joplin Globe. During the past year, it has received well-deserved attention from across the nation, including a recent documentary about its courageous response to the May 22, 2011, tornado, that killed 161 people, including one Globe staff member, and displaced about a third of the Globe’s workers.
The Globe’s corporate management, the good folks at Community Newspapers Holding, apparently decided it was time for its newspapers to milk a few cents more out of the death industry.
I am sure it will not be long before someone sets up a website where obituaries can be found and when that happens another reason to read newspapers will have vanished forever- the same fate as classified ads and eventually legal notices when people come to the realization that the only reason those are still in newspapers is to prop up their bottom line- the taxpayers would probably be served just as well in this day and age by having legal notices posted on internet sites.
Once the public heard about the Globe's change in policy, the cries of outrage began and they have not let up in succeeding weeks.
1 comment:
Good move on The Globe's part. If someone or some company can't generate enough revenue from display ads, classified ads and legal notices to pay the bills, then they probably shouldn't be in the newspaper business. Asking people to pay to have an obituary run in the appear is adding insult to injury, and the same can be said of asking people to pay to view said obituary. Rick Nichols.
Post a Comment