How do I place a newspaper notice?

“I’ll need a Death Certificate, won’t I?”

We’ve been hearing that assumption a lot lately. I remarked to a family member that it was the second time in 24 hours that I’d heard that question, and he said his AI agent had given that advice. Which had me running to my keyboard to write a blog post asap and set things straight.

You do not need a Death Certificate in order to place a death notice or obituary in the newspaper. Not in New Zealand, anyway.

Do you do notices?

We’re always happy to intercede and place a newspaper notice for you. It is a task that incurs an incremental increase in our Professional Service fee: ie we charge a bit for the time it takes us to place the notice for you, along with the cost of the newspaper notice itself. We don’t add anything to the cost of the newspaper notice – that’s passed on direct from the papers, and will depend on how many lines of text are in the notice.

Each paper charges slightly differently. Smaller papers tend to be a bit cheaper. The NZ Herald tends to be the costliest of New Zealand’s papers. When we’re drawing up an estimate, we usually put in about $200 for a notice in The Post, as a placeholder amount. Once we’ve sent the text through, the paper will send back a proof copy for you to read and sign off, along with how much it’s going to cost.

But I can just do it myself, can’t I?

Yup. Each newspaper will have an email address you can send your notice to. You’ll find that on their website, usually under a heading like “Family notices” in The Post or “Death Notices” in the Herald. Email the text to that address, and put in the subject line the newspaper it’s for. This is because the same team may be managing notices for multiple different papers – like Stuff, who publish The Post, The Press, The Waikato Times, etc.

In your email, include what date you want the notice published. Deadlines are usually around 3pm the day before, but the earlier you get your text in, the better, as this gives everyone time to check, check, check all the spellings and details are present and correct.

In your initial email you should also include the name of the Funeral Home who are looking after your loved one. The paper will call the Funeral Director and confirm the person named has indeed passed away.

No Death Certificate needed.

Don’t I have to be family to place a notice?

Nope. Anyone can place a newspaper notice, as long as you’re willing to pay for it. We do recommend that you coordinate with family and friends, though. This is partly to prevent conflicting details being published, but mainly it’s for courtesy. Close family may have their reasons for delaying their newspaper notice, so do have a talk with them before you go ahead.

So but there can only be one notice per deceased, right?

Again, nope. But again… it is best to check. If you’re not the person who’s sat down with us to make arrangements, you may not be aware of the logistical, emotional or other reasons for deciding whether to place a newspaper notice and when to do it. Then again, your offer to place (and pay for) a notice may be very welcome.

It sounds a bit complicated… can you do it for me?

Yes. Placing newspaper ads is one of those things that isn’t particularly onerous by itself, but when you’re in the midst of grief it can be one administrative job too many. We do these things all the time and we’re used to the formatting, the processes and keeping an eye on deadlines and costs. We’re always happy to take tasks like this off your hands, to try to make the path just a little bit easier.

And we know for sure what you do need a Death Certificate for, and what you don’t, how to get one and when it’s going to be available. But that’s a subject for a whole other post.