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ADN Obituary Guidelines

GUIDELINES FOR OBITUARIES, DEATH NOTICES, SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS, LEGACY.COM AND MEMORIAMS

Our policy: The Daily News strives to report the deaths of all Alaskans. The cost for regular obituaries starts at $110 for current and former Alaska residents. Brief notices that include death, service and memorial donation information only are published for free. All obituaries and death notices must be received within three months of the death.

Death notices: Brief notices containing full name, age, date and place of death and time, date and place of service are published at no charge.

Obituaries: The Daily News charges a fee for obituaries. Obituaries are prepared by families in accordance with general newspaper guidelines and are edited by our staff. There is a charge of $110 for an obituary up to 350 words. Obituaries longer than 350 words are charged according to length.

News obituaries may be published up to two times. The charge for an obituary that runs twice will be double that of a single-run obituary, ie a 350-word obituary running once is $110; if it runs twice, the charge is $220. When space is short, first-run obituaries take priority over obituaries that are running a second time.

Submissions: If a funeral home in Alaska is involved, the obituary should be submitted to the funeral home to ensure it is authorized by those family members in charge of arrangements. If a local funeral home is not involved, obituaries and death notices may be submitted electronically using our online form at www.adn.com/obituaries. The form includes fields for secure credit card payment. Please compose the obituary in your own word processing program and save it to your computer before filling out the form. Then, paste the text from your document into the appropriate fields of the form. You may also bypass the form and e-mail the text to obituary@adn.com. Payment arrangements can be made over the phone.

Payment: Pre-payment is required unless the obituary is being placed through an Alaska funeral home with a Daily News account. Visa, Mastercard and Discover cards are accepted by our secure online form at www.adn.com/obituaries. Payment by cash or check must be made at the Daily News, 1001 Northway Drive, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday only. We cannot process checks or cash on weekends or holidays. Funeral homes with Daily News advertising accounts will be billed for the obituaries they submit.

Deadlines: Obituary submissions for Tuesday through Saturday editions must be received by 2 p.m. the previous day. Submissions for Sunday and Monday editions must be received by 5 p.m. Friday. We do not process obituaries on Saturdays or Sundays. We cannot guarantee placement in a particular edition. When space is short, we prioritize by date of local service.

Legacy.com: Death notices and obituaries are published online at Legacy.com for 30 days as part of a regular obituary. All obituaries on Legacy.com have guestbooks. Families and friends may share memories and condolences in the guestbook. Families also may purchase expanded obituaries, photo slide shows, audio tributes and more through the Legacy.com web site. The address is www.adn.com/legacy.

Photos: Obituaries may include a photo. Photos should show the subject up close and in good focus. The online submission form provides a place to upload a photo from the submitter’s computer. All photos must be in the JPEG format. Funeral homes and the Daily News can also process photos for publication.

Icons: A variety of icons, including the U.S. flag and religious and organizational symbols, may be included in obituaries for free until further notice. Only one icon per obituary, please.

News obituaries: To suggest a news story about the death of a newsworthy Alaskan, call our Obituary Desk at 257-4452 or email obituary@adn.com. Immediate notification is crucial.

To place an obituary with another newspaper: Please contact that newspaper directly. We can provide phone numbers and addresses for most newspapers in Alaska, the Lower 48 and Hawaii.

Copyright: All death notices and obituaries become the property of the Daily News and may be republished in any format.

Questions? Call our obituary writers at 257-4452 weekdays. We do not process obituaries on Saturday or Sunday. The in-state, toll-free number is 1-800-478-4200, ext. 452. See www.adn.com/news/obituaries/ with links for guidelines, tips to avoid editing and a sample obituary.

Memoriams: Memoriam ads may be purchased for obituaries that fall outside our standard guidelines: for example, obituaries not submitted electronically, for the death of someone who has never lived in Alaska, for a death that occurred more than three months earlier, or for the anniversary of a death. Memoriams may be written to any length, edited and designed as families choose; they are handled as advertising by the advertising department. Memoriams appear on the Obituary page. Contact the Daily News Advertising Department at 257-4506 or 257-4490 for rates and guidelines.

Archives: All obituaries published in the Daily News since 1986 are available in our online archives at adn.com.