Obituaries - just for the well-to-do?

[SheilaT]

5. Different newspapers have different policies.

I've lived in cities where the local paper publishes all (so far as I can tell) death notices of all who die. An obit that runs longer than whatever they declare is the minimum will cost.

My current city, Santa Fe, the local paper only publishes obituaries, which are all paid for. Which means more than once I know for sure that someone has died and never see anything in the paper. I think also that many funeral homes build in the cost of an obituary in their services, which makes it one less thing for survivors to worry about.