From the website of "ObitsOhio.com" quoted from the "about" section:
OBITSOHIO.COM: OHIO DEATHS AND THE LIVES THAT PRECEDED THEM
ObitsOhio.com was founded in 2009 as a clearinghouse for news about current and former Ohioans who have died. We expect ObitsOhio.com to become the online site for finding out about Ohio deaths and the lives that preceded those deaths.
We don’t believe in waiting until tomorrow when we can report that someone died today or last night, unless the family prefers to wait until after the funeral to make the announcement. We aim to update our list of deaths and memorial events throughout the day - every day - as the information is provided to us.
We hope to offer a brief description to easily identify the deceased for our readers. Identifying information usually will include the person’s name, age, the area of Ohio in which they lived and/or worked, plus occupation and/or claim to fame.
Yet the person need not be famous to be listed on ObitsOhio.com. We want to note the passing of every resident or former resident of Ohio as soon as possible following the death. We also want to post funeral information as a courtesy to the family and as a service to our readers.
Longer obituaries, which appear on the ObitsOhio.com mainpage and/or on each person’s personal ObitsOhio.com webpage, may be posted later. We believe families should have the luxury of taking their time to prepare these once-in-a-lifetime stories.
Full or partial obituaries, submitted and prepared by the family or funeral home and edited by ObitsOhio.com, will appear on personal webpages. Links to funeral home websites, memorial/tribute sites, newspaper obituaries, videos and more also may show up on those webpages. Many obits also will be featured on ObitsOhio.com mainpage.
The extent to and manner in which each obit is handled will be determined in accordance with ObitsOhio.com’s agreement with each funeral home.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
ObitsOhio.com founder, Alana Baranick, wrote obits for the Cleveland Plain Dealer from May 1992 until December 2008. The Chronicle-Telegram in Elyria, Ohio, provided her first obit-writing experience, beginning in 1985. She has used her more than 20 years as an obit writer, the countless questions and suggestions she has received from readers and bereaved relatives during that time, and things she has learned through her own efforts to find obituary and biographical information online in creating ObitsOhio.com.
Alana, winner of the 2005 ASNE (American Society of Newspaper Editors) Award for Distinguished Writing in the Obituary category, is the chief author of “Life on the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers” (Marion Street Press, 2005) and director of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers. She is the instructor for Poynter Institute’s NewsU online course on obituary writing and the “Death Beat” columnist for the National Newspaper Association’s Publisher’s Auxiliary.
Her column, “The Dash Between,” will be a regular feature of ObitsOhio.com.
Contact us at info@obitsohio.com.
