Obituaries Are Moving to GoLocal
Wednesday, December 05, 2018
A few years ago, GoLocal started to look at how families could experience obituaries better — to provide a superior way to pay respect and remember their loved ones.
This year, GoLocal began meeting with Rhode Island’s funeral homes and got their feedback on how to build both wider distribution and a more respectful way to recognize those who passed.
The existing system forces families pay $1,000 or more to be in a newspaper for just one day, at a time when over the past few years, the main newspaper in Rhode Island has lost more than 70 percent of its print circulation. And while it keeps shrinking, the cost keeps increasing for families -- significant obituaries that appear just one day can cost as much as $7,000.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTEndorsement from Board of RI Funeral Directors Association
This fall, the Rhode Island Funeral Directors Association board voted to endorse a partnership between the group and Rhode Island's largest local digital news organization.
Now. a structure offers families video, social media promotion targeted to their community, and a price that is a fraction of the cost of the outdated model.
“We believe that families ought to be able to publish and share an obituary that includes multiple photographs, or a video, and it ought to be able to be posted by the publication and shared to the community,” said Rodrigo Zetina, COO of GoLocal24, the Providence, Rhode Island-based digital news media company.
“We want to create a structure in which families can remember and celebrate their friends and family, and they shouldn’t have to cringe at the cost,” Zetina added.
Why Obituaries Are Important
As Dominic Tierney wrote in the Atlantic, "No obituary is an island, entire of itself. They are all pieces of the continent, a part of the main."
Obituaries pay a critical role in a community. They create a connection, they inform and they are history.
“We are excited to partner with many of the best funeral homes in Rhode Island -- and many of them have already signed a partnership agreement with GoLocal," said Josh Fenton, CEO and co-founder of GoLocal24.
Now, families will be able to customize videos and have them embedded in the obituary, or have the obituary posted and distributed via social media. "We are pleased to be able to provide funeral homes and their families a better structure for their obituary at a fraction of the price," added Fenton.
