olyphaunt wrote:
I'll say it again: Obits are paid for (if at all) by either the family or the funeral home as a part of their cost.
But they are written by a reporter! They are never written by the family unless otherwise noted. You're completely wrong.
It depends on the newspaper, but most papers do not have reporters that write obits. They just don't have the staffing to do such a thing any more...most are so trimmed down with people they can barely cover news and sports. They might edit/clean up one that is submitted but they certainly don't write them. I worked in the sports department of a mid-sized newspaper for 10 years (I still freelance for them) and no one on staff wrote them.
My parents lived in a small town and I wrote my dad's. In the end it was an incredible honor. I don't know what they paid for it since I didn't handle that end but what appeared in the paper was exactly what I wrote.