Should a local news site charge for obituaries, classifieds or featured spots?

Legacy local media figured this out a long time ago, and it's worth copying.

How should obituaries work?

Freemium.

"You can do an obituary on your site for free but only one photo and three paragraphs. For $99, up to 20 photos and as long as you want. Who wouldn't pay a hundred bucks to have a real obituary?"

The exact free limit has moved around as I've talked it through: one photo and about 100 words, five lines and one photo, two photos and a paragraph. The idea stays the same. The free version is short and basic. The paid version gets lots of photos, hosted video, long text and any other features you can add. Who isn't going to pay to have their family's story told?

Price-wise I've said anywhere from about $99 to $200 as a one-time fee. When we planned it for our sites in October 2026, I approved $149 for a paid obituary and $99 for funeral homes, plus short notices with no photos.

We're not gatekeeping. If you want a good one, you pay. A couple of variations I've considered: free full obituaries for paying members, or a tiny fee like $2 on submissions, presented as spam protection, because spammers won't pay.

How do you make an obituary section look alive on day one?

Pull in public obituaries at first so the section looks active, then turn that off once paid and free submissions come in. And it works best when you're the main source in town. That's when families think of you first.

Matt Moody of Salina 311 was the one who introduced me to the obituary idea on my podcast. His brand is the hub for everything happening in the community, even the negative stuff, so obituaries and crime both fit. Most of us stick to new businesses, restaurants and events.

Do classifieds still work?

We started doing classifieds. Think about the back of an old local newspaper: one or two lines that people paid about $20 to run.

"Again, it takes time to get people used to it and willing to pay for it."

Classifieds are a habit and relationship product before they're a revenue line. Readers and businesses have to learn the section exists and that it works.

How do you set up a classifieds section?

1. Keep it small. Up to three to five listings at the bottom of the newsletter. Each one is a name or title, a one-sentence description, and a website and phone number.
2. Cap the length. I counted, and about 28 words fills two lines in my newsletter, so I capped listings at 25 words.
3. Start cheap. We launched at $25 a listing, with a plan to bump it to $50 once they sell.
4. Make it self-serve. A "buy this classified" link in the newsletter goes to a payment page that only lets people submit the allowed fields. The listing arrives by email and gets placed.
5. Buy one yourself first. Before announcing it, put it in a send and pay for one to make sure the form, invoice and payment all work.

It works. In an early test, a realtor's listing got an email from another realtor looking for a partner right after it went live.

Who are classifieds for?

The businesses who tell you a real ad is too expensive. Now you have an answer. Anyone can afford $25 to get their info in front of the town.

You can sweeten it: write a short article about each classified business on your website. The point isn't website traffic. It's that they get to say they were written up by your brand and share it on their own social media. For a tiny, friendly business, I'd just put them in for free as a favor.

One partner warned me that low-price customers are more trouble than they're worth. That's true. It's why this section has to be cheap and automated.

Can you charge for featured restaurants and events?

You could. Everybody wants to read about restaurants, and a "featured restaurant of the week" is prime real estate. Same with a featured event of the week. I'm not doing much paid featuring yet, but the slots are obvious.

How do these fit together?

Product	Free version	Paid version
Obituary	1 or 2 photos, short text	One-time fee, about $99 to $149, for many photos, video, any length
Classified	None	About $20 to $25 for a couple of lines
Business profile	Basic listing	About $50 a month
Featured restaurant or event	Editorial pick	Paid placement

None of these is huge alone. Together they add up, which is why I price software for local site owners against everything they can earn this way: business profiles, paid content and obituaries. More in city directory revenue math.

They're also cheap to try. We didn't strictly need obituaries. But if it takes an hour for Claude Code and five minutes for me, why not do it?

What's the rule for small products like these?

Self-serve. If someone has to do manual work for every $20 classified or $99 obituary, the margin disappears. Let people submit, pay and publish on their own.