How to Navigate Legacy and Obituary Submissions for The Missoulian
The Missoulian runs obituaries through a system called Legacy, which is operated by GateHouse Media. If you've tried to submit one recently, you've probably noticed the portal isn't exactly intuitive. I spent about two hours once trying to figure out why my submission kept getting rejected, only to discover the photo resolution was slightly too low. The system demands at least 300 DPI and a specific file format. After that, everything went through smoothly in about twenty minutes. The significance of these obituaries in a paper like the Missoulian goes beyond just announcing a death. In a community the size of Missoula, where everyone tends to know someone who knows someone, the obituary becomes a public record of life that actually shapes how the community responds. People show up to funerals they wouldn't have known about otherwise. Donations get directed properly. It matters more than people realize.
Legacy In Print The Significance Of Obituaries In The Missoulian Newspaper
Here's how the actual process works when you're submitting through the Legacy platform for the Missoulian specifically. Step one: Go to the Legacy website. You can reach it through missoulian.com's obituary section or directly at legacy.com. Click on submit an obituary and select The Missoulian from the newspaper dropdown. This is important because each paper has different requirements and pricing structures. Picking the wrong one will just waste your time. Step two: Fill in the basic information. Full name, date of birth, date of death, age, and the surviving family members. The system walks you through this in a form. It's pretty standard. The tricky part is the biographical section, where you write the actual life story. There's a word limit and a cost that scales with how much text you include. For the Missoulian, longer obituaries run significantly more. A standard 50 to 100 word notice might cost you around a hundred dollars, while a full page with a photo and extended biography can run three or four hundred depending on current rates. Call the paper directly to confirm current pricing because these change.
Step three: Upload a photo. This is where most people hit snags. The photo needs to be high quality. A passport-style headshot works fine. Family photos often get rejected if they're scans of old prints or taken from social media. Use a direct digital file, preferably a JPEG under five megabytes and at least 300 DPI. I learned this the hard way when a beautifully composed family photo from Instagram got flagged as too compressed. We switched to a scanned print from a physical photo album and it went through on the first attempt. Step four: Choose your publication dates. Obituaries in the Missoulian typically run either once or on consecutive days. Most families opt for one day, but if you want maximum community reach, two or three consecutive days is better. Just know that each additional day adds to the cost. The paper usually processes submissions within one business day, so don't wait until the last hour before the deadline. I've seen people panic-submit at 11 PM the night before, and the staff was clearly stressed about it. Step five: Review and pay. Everything gets sent to the newspaper's obituary desk for a final review. They check for typos, factual inconsistencies, and whether the content meets their standards. This review process can add a few hours to the timeline. Once approved, the payment goes through and the obituary is scheduled.
Get the Full Details
There are some things the Legacy system doesn't tell you upfront. The Missoulian's obituary desk can make corrections after publication, but there's usually a fee for that, and it's not guaranteed they can fix everything depending on how far into the printing cycle you are. If you catch a mistake before the paper goes to print, call them directly rather than trying to fix it online. The phone number for the obituary desk is listed on the Missoulian's website under news or contact sections. Another thing worth knowing: if the deceased had a long career, military service, or involvement with local organizations, mentioning those details can be meaningful but it also increases the word count and the cost. You don't need to include everything. A focused obituary that mentions the essentials plus two or three significant life details tends to resonate better than a comprehensive resume of every achievement. People remember the story, not the list. If you're dealing with a particularly difficult situation where the family is fragmented or there are disputes about what to include, the newspaper won't mediate those conflicts. They'll publish what's submitted by the primary contact. If there's a disagreement, resolve it before you start the submission process. I've had callers try to push back on exclusions during the review, but the paper's policy is clear: the submitting party has the final say on content.
The Missoulian also offers a digital-only option through Legacy, which is cheaper and stays online indefinitely. Print obituaries have a lifespan of a day or two in the physical paper, but the digital version persists. For many families now, the digital version is actually more useful because it's searchable and shareable. That said, some older community members still rely entirely on the print edition, so if reaching that demographic matters to you, the print version is still worth the extra cost. One edge case that caught me off guard: if someone passes away outside of Montana but the family wants the obituary in the Missoulian, the Legacy system still allows it. The newspaper will publish it regardless of where the death occurred, as long as the family has ties to the community. You just need to be prepared to explain those ties if asked, though that rarely happens. The system doesn't flag out-of-state deaths automatically. The whole process, once you know what you're doing, takes maybe fifteen to twenty minutes from start to finish. The first time, expect to spend an hour or so because you'll be second-guessing the photo quality and the word count. After that, it's straightforward. The Legacy platform has improved over the years, but it still feels like it was built by people who have never actually watched someone go through this process while grieving. It does the job, eventually.
If you need help navigating the process, the Missoulian's obituary desk is reasonably helpful on the phone. They're not going to write it for you, but they can walk you through technical issues or pricing questions. The best approach is to have everything ready before you start the online submission: the biographical details, the photo file, and the payment method. That way you're not scrambling while the form is open and you're trying to remember if you spelled the middle name correctly.
