Death Be Not Free: PA Readers to Pay 'Obit o' Money"

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LancasterOnline, which serves readers of the Pa. daily Intelligencer Journal Lancaster New Era, is the first outlet to flip the switch on the Steve Brill-backed Journalism Online paid content system.

After seven "free views" monthly of LancasterOnline's online obituary pages, non-Lancaster County readers will have to dole out $1.99 a month or $19.99 annually to find out which Pennsylvanians have gone from the Keystone State to a headstone state so to speak.  The editor of LancasterOnline anticipates as many as 100,000 readers outside of the area are visiting the obit pages annually, which could mean $100,000 to $500,000 in additional revenues, depending on the subscription rate.

New Yorkers, and residents of Harrisburg and Philadelphia constitute the largest percentage of out-of-area visitors to the website, according to the editor. The Lancaster daily boasts a Sunday readership of 95,000 and daily circulation of roughly 81,000. Subscribers of the print edition or of the e-edition of the Lancaster paper won't have to pay to peruse the online obits.