Obit Research

“’I don’t how anyone did this job before Internet existed?’ … I can tell you how they did because I’ve been around”, said Patricia Sullivan, a Washington Post obituary writer and contributor to Post’s Post Mortem blog.

The internet revolutionized obituary writing like it did most other kinds of journalism. Before writers had to go to the library, Sullivan explained, and sift through phone books and archives. Now you can find phone numbers with a couple of keystrokes.

Last Sunday, Tiffany wrote about an entry from the Washington Post’s Post Mortem blog. Sullivan has been a Post obituary writer for the past six years. She and her colleagues started Post Mortem two years ago.

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I think we can all agree that we would like to steal emulate the Washington Post’s “Post Mortem” blog. The writers break down the most recent obituaries concisely, delivering the most interesting aspects of a person’s obit in easily digestible blog entries.

A post from a few days ago caught my eye, mainly because it had the word Publix in it. Anyone else who is from or has lived in Florida will know why my eyes got so excited.

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