Difference between newspaper obituaries and online memorial

Vivek Vyas
Nov 1 · 3 min read
comparison chart between print obituary and online memorials

It is obvious that most of the people are curious to know more about the difference between newspaper obituary/ print obituary and online memorial or online tribute services because in countries like us online memorial services. yes they know most about print obituaries as it is by far the only medium when it comes to paying homage and tribute.
Being a co-founder of India’s 1st tribute portal Shradhanjali.com and having studied the market for one decade; I believe I will be able to explain and share the clear difference between the two.
First of all they both are different products and don’t compete with each other as both of them cater to different needs.
1. when it comes to death notification, death announcement, information about prayer meet, teeye ki beithak, chauthe ki beithak etc. newspaper obituaries come very handy because of immediate attention and huge reach. the price mainly depends on factors like size of the matter (image, text), page, color or black and white, editions, reputation and circulation of the paper etc. the size varies from full page to 5x2 column centimeter.
The memorial profile caters to different needs of keeping the memories alive forever and passing on the legacy to future generation. the idea is to create archive of lives of our ancestors and departed loved ones. Memorial profiles cover various features like — biography which can be posted in our preferred language, family tree, videos, photos, it lets us select background music which can be played when the profile is open, it also lets people post their condolences and memories with their name and photo in their own language and lets us set death and birth anniversary reminders for extended family members via email and SMS year on year. in most of the cases memorial profiles are advertisement free pages in order to maintain the decorum of the profile unlike newspapers. price here also varies depending on the tenure you wish to select. multiple options like 1 year, 5 years and lifetime subscription options are available on different platform. prices are as affordable as smallest size of newspaper obituary. viz. INR 1000 for one year to 4000 for lifetime subscription. (plans and prices vary as per the portal)
following is the chart which makes it easier for us to understand the difference in detail.

online memorial portals are slowly becoming popular among new gen users as it offers lots of flexibility, unlimited content, lasts longer and are extremely affordable. having said that I also believe print obits will continue to flourish as it offers wider reach. As per one of the market surveys published in national daily print obituary market of top 100 cities of India is estimated to be of INR 150 crores.
To warp up it can be said that both of these services compliment each other, both of them will flourish and both have market of their own. in time to come likely are the chances that newspapers of national repute may start offering online memorial services along with print obituaries.

I hope you will find this piece interesting. you can mail your feedback, queries, suggestions and comments to vivek@unicepts.com. Thank you.

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