Funeral director puts obits on Web

SANFORD – Tired of newspapers’ stringent editorial policies, a Maine funeral director is taking the obituary publishing business to cyberspace.

David Heald, owner of Heald Funeral Homes in Springvale and Limerick, has launched a Web site with the purpose of publishing obituaries on the Internet.

For Heald, the new method takes some of the sting out of the criticism funeral directors sometimes receive when editorial policies that vary from newspaper to newspaper prevent obituaries from reading exactly as a family would prefer.

Some newspapers publish visiting hours along with an obituary. Others consider obituaries to be news stories and publish them for free, but consider death notices and related information as advertisements and charge for their publication.

But people making arrangements for their loved ones don’t always understand the difference between the two, Heald said.

Heald’s Web site, www.healdfuneral.com, can include color photographs and all the information the family would like to see – unedited. There is no fee for the service.

The online obituaries can be searched by name or date of death, and will remain on the site for a year, Heald said. They can also be e-mailed to others via a link on the Web page.

Heald said he got the idea from colleagues across the country.

The Bangor Daily News charges for obituary notices, which are published as written by the family. The notices are also posted on the NEWS Website at bangordailynews.com

Al Tompkins, who teaches online and broadcast journalism for the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Poynter Institute, said publishing obituaries online may force change in newspapers.