Times Free Press Backs Down From Legacy.com Plan After Funeral Home Pushback; Newspaper To Charge More For Obituaries, Give Fewer Free Words

  • Wednesday, November 23, 2016

The Chattanooga Times Free Press has backed down from an arrangement with Legacy.com after considerable pushback from local funeral home operators.

Instead, the daily newspaper will give fewer free words in obituaries and charge families more.

The newspaper now gives 50 free words, but that will be trimmed to 25.

It charges 50 cents per word after the free words. That is rising to 75 cents per word.

Under the Legacy.com plan, local obituaries were on that site. Funeral home directors said it pushed business to that national site and away from the local offerings.

The Times Free Press would have gotten $25 more per obituary under the Legacy.com arrangement.

Bruce Hartmann, Times Free Press president, wrote local funeral home directors on Wednesday:

"After meeting with many funeral home representatives over the last week and hearing all kinds of feedback,  the Times Free Press has decided to change some of our practices.   These changes include the following:

"1.  As of December 1st, we will no longer be sending obituaries to Legacy.com. There might be a slight delay here but if it doesn't happen on  December 1st,  it will happen shortly thereafter.  

"2.  The Obituaries will continue to appear on TimesFreePress.com.    Over the course of the next month or so,  we will be updating the obituary pages on the site to hopefully include pictures and other ideas as well. 

"3.  As of January 1st, 2017 we will be adjusting our rates for Obituaries.  The following will be the new rates:  

  •  You will receive 25 words for free. (These words should be used on the first day that the obituary runs).   
  •  Every word after the 25 free words will be $.75 per word.
  •  The photos will remain $25 with double photo being $35.
  •  The logos will remain $10.
  •  If you run a full obituary (not the announcements) for any additional days there will be a 30% discount on the increased days. 

"We hope these changes have addressed the concerns brought up in our meetings and discussions.   If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at 423-757-6370 or Donna Farmer at 423-757-6204.

"Thank you for your business and I hope you and your family have a Happy Thanksgiving."   

Walter Crox of Covenant Funeral Service said this of the Legacy.com plan by the Times:

"Recently the Chattanooga Times-Free Press began using Legacy.com for on-line obituaries.  For the consumer, that means that Legacy.com will be targeting you in the hopes that you will visit the Legacy.com web site rather that the funeral provider’s site or florist’s site to express condolences, interest in pre-arrangements and purchasing flowers.  Welcome to Legacy.com!

"Legacy.com and the Chattanooga Times-Free Press seek to divert revenue from local businesses to businesses with which they have a financial arrangement (think profit sharing).  If you choose to purchase flowers from Legacy.com and the Chattanooga Times-Free Press, you may be denying the local florist of your choice the business they badly need.  On the other hand, if you do buy, you could be denying the local florist who delivers the wired order his usual profit and sending part of it to Legacy.com and The Times-Free Press.  In fact a boxed floral piece could be delivered by a shipping company for the funeral provider to un-box and assemble, denying the local florist any profit.

"If you use a search engine to seek information about a local funeral director, Legacy.com may seek to divert you to the Legacy.com web site where obituaries are posted with a page devoted for each funeral establishment. There is the opportunity for the consumer to purchase flowers and post condolences.  The funeral establishment is then expected to use their personnel to review condolences posted.  Are the condolences posted stolen from the funeral establishment’s own web site because Legacy.com diverted them away from the funeral establishment’s site?  Why should the funeral establishment need to review condolences at Legacy.com? 

"The Times-Free Press is collecting or attempting to collect $25 for each posted obituary to support the arrangement with Legacy.com.  Is it likely that the local funeral director will be forced to pass along the $25 charge to the family being served?  If so, consider the amount of revenue being received from the arrangement and how much the amount of a funeral’s increasing price is adding to the coffers of the Times-Free Press.

"In the end is Legacy.com a disservice to local consumers, local florists as well as local funeral businesses?  You bet it is!  What right does the Times-Free Press have to exploit local people and charge for the exploitation?  If the funeral director does not have the right to opt out of Legacy.com, is the denial of that right predatory and almost like extortion?

"If the Times-Free Press needs additional revenue to support a dwindling circulation of the printed newspaper, why take money away from local consumers, florists and funeral directors?  Simply increase the cost of placing an obituary.  Would every obituary experience a $25 cost increase?"

Kim Evenson, CMO of Legacy.com said, "Legacy.com provides guest book screening for all our clients. All comments are reviewed prior to posting so inappropriate comments are never seen by mourning families. Providing a safe place for those grieving is at the heart of our business. During the last month, we screened over two thousand guest book entries for the Chattanooga community. The guest book screening team is the largest team within Legacy and is highly trained with an average tenure of over 5 years. It is nice to know your families have a safe space with our services. In the broad range of communities where we are serving both funeral homes and newspaper clients directly, we offer merged guest books where all screened entries are visible on both the funeral home and newspaper websites, so families see all the support no matter where their online search began.

"100% of floral orders taken on our site are fulfilled by local florists. Local florists choose to become a member of a national network to easily receive orders from customers across the country. Once the florist receives an order from the network it is filled and delivered locally in each of the communities we serve. As you enter a floral shop in Chattanooga or view their local websites you will see the FTD or Teleflora symbols that convey these florists make it easy for out of town well-wishers to send a bouquet of support."

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