These three get used interchangeably, and it causes real problems — families pay newspaper rates for something they did not need, or turn up at a service with nothing written because they assumed someone else was handling it.
Death notice
What: A short factual announcement. Name, age, town, date of death, service details. Usually 50 to 100 words.
Who writes it: Often the funeral home, as part of their service.
Where it goes: The newspaper's paid notices section, and increasingly the funeral home's own website.
Cost: Paid, usually by the line. This is the one people are surprised by.
Obituary
What: The fuller account — who they were, what they did, who survives them, and the service details. Typically 200 to 400 words in print, longer online.
Who writes it: The family, almost always. A funeral director may tidy it.
Where it goes: The newspaper, the funeral home site, an online memorial page, and the printed program.
Cost: Free to write. Paid only if a newspaper prints it.
Eulogy
What: A speech, delivered at the service. Spoken, not printed.
Who writes it: Whoever is giving it — a child, a sibling, a close friend, sometimes the officiant.
Where it goes: Nowhere. It is read aloud once.
Cost: None.
The expensive confusion: a family writes a beautiful 600-word obituary and sends it to the paper assuming that is what a notice is. Newspapers bill by the line. The same information as a 60-word death notice, with the full obituary on a memorial page and in the program, costs a fraction and reaches more people.
Which do you actually need?
- A death notice if you want it in the local paper and cost matters. Facts and service times only.
- An obituary in every case. It goes in the program, on the memorial page, and is what family keeps. Write this one properly.
- A eulogy only if someone is speaking. It is a different piece of writing — the obituary is read; the eulogy is heard, and can be far more personal.
A common and sensible arrangement: a short paid death notice in the paper, the full obituary printed in the program and published free on a memorial page, and a eulogy written separately by whoever is speaking.
When each one is needed
They are due at different times, which is a second reason not to treat them as one job.
- The death notice comes first. It carries the service details, so it has to run before the service. Newspapers set their own deadlines, often a day or two ahead of printing. Ask the funeral home, who will usually know the local paper's cutoff.
- The obituary is due when the program goes to print. That is normally two or three days before the service, to leave time for printing and a final read.
- The eulogy is due when the speaker stands up. Most are finished the night before. That is normal, and it is not a sign it was left too late.
How long each should be
Death notice: 50 to 100 words. Every extra line is billed, so cut anything that is not a fact someone needs in order to attend.
Obituary: as long as the space allows. A single-page program holds about 220 words and a booklet about 1,050. Online there is no limit, which is why many families print a shorter version and publish the full one on a memorial page.
Eulogy: three to five minutes, which is 400 to 650 words read at a steady pace. It always runs longer aloud than it looks on paper. Read it out loud once with a timer before the day.
How the writing differs
An obituary is written in the third person and has to make sense to a stranger. It names the places, the dates, the work and the family, because some of the people reading it never met them.
A eulogy is written in the first person and is allowed to assume everything. The speaker can say "you all know what she was like about the garden" and the room will laugh, because the room does know. One good story told well does more than a list of achievements.
A death notice is not really written at all. It is filled in: name, age, town, date, service, and where flowers or donations should go.
Common questions
Can the obituary be read as the eulogy? It can, and some services list a reading of the obituary as its own item. It will sound formal, because it was written to be read silently. If someone is willing to speak, a separate eulogy is warmer.
Does the funeral home write the obituary? Usually not. They will write the death notice and may tidy an obituary you give them, but the account of a life comes from the people who knew it.
Do we have to publish in a newspaper at all? No. There is no legal requirement in most places. Many families now skip the paper and share a memorial page instead, which costs nothing to read and can be sent to anyone.
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