Posted on: Sunday, July 8, 2001

After Deadline
Getting death details right a daily challenge

By John Simonds
Advertiser reader representative.

Death attracts attention, and articles about people who have died are among the most closely read in The Advertiser. Whether expected or surprising, calm or tragic, news of death is as necessary to informing a community as it is captivating to readers.

The alphabetized summary of deaths that appears in The Advertiser's Hawai'i section is among the first things many readers, especially seniors, turn to each day. Obituaries are part of the life-blood of a daily newspaper.

Unlike many Mainland newspapers, The Advertiser does not charge for obituaries. Because obits are news, rather than paid advertising, The Advertiser's news staff decides what information to include in them.

Some readers may confuse the alphabetized obituaries in the Hawai'i section with funeral notices that appear as classified advertising in the newspaper, often with a photograph of the deceased. The latter are paid notices. Because they are advertising, they include what customers wish to say. Classified advertising at 521-9111 can answer questions about paid death notices.

It's especially critical to get news obituary details right. The amount of information and the stress under which families sometimes must provide it add to the deadline challenge.

Three veteran City Desk staffers with a total of about 70 years at The Advertiser write most of the obits, using faxed notices from funeral homes and mortuaries as their basic source material. They phone funeral homes and families to question spellings and other details in the notices. They also review each day's obituary notices to see if they recognize newsworthy names that might merit separate treatment, possibly an article with a wider headline, more biographical details and comments from friends or colleagues.

The writers send the notices to the Advertiser library where researchers check to see if the names of the deceased have turned up in past news or feature articles. Any apparent references are rechecked with mortuaries or families to make sure people mentioned in archived articles are the same as those in the death notices. If a separate obit is needed, a city staff reporter is assigned to write it. After obits have been prepared, copy editors proof them.

If mistakes do occur and corrections or additions are needed, The Advertiser usually publishes corrected obits in their entirety.

In recent years, The Advertiser has opened the ranks of published survivors to include non-family — caregivers, companions, former spouses — but still holds the line against listing pets. A photo may be used if (a) one is available and (b) space permits. Newsroom judgment determines the size and display of an obituary and whether the fame of the deceased or availability of space are sufficient to warrant a picture. Public figures past and present; candidates; entertainers; athletes; and business, professional, academic and spiritual leaders are most likely to be subjects of expanded obituaries.

Family members or friends with a death to report generally work with a mortuary to get the information to the newspaper. Survivors can assist mortuary staff and the newspaper by organizing the facts of the deceased's life and death, names, date and place of birth and death, accurate description of life achievements, names of survivors, funeral details if available.

In deaths of well-known people, families or friends should notify the City Desk at 525-8090 as early as possible.

Deaths occasionally appear in the newspaper several days after the fact because survivors have waited to notify distant relatives or to complete funeral details. In well planned situations, family members or friends have notified The Advertiser of a community figure's declining health, allowing time for an obituary to be prepared in advance.

The Advertiser also publishes obits of former Hawai'i residents who have died elsewhere. Reports from mortuaries, wire services and other newspapers are the most common ways of verifying out-of-state deaths. Information from family members is accepted if accompanied by such documentation.

Larger newspapers elsewhere make it a point to include causes of death in obituaries. In Hawai'i, cause of death is seldom volunteered by families or mortuaries, an omission that seems consistent with local concerns for family privacy. It results, however, in readers wondering about the causes of deaths of younger people listed in the obituaries.

Articles about the passing of nationally known figures may have more information about the circumstances of death. They arrive via wire news services.