What, too sensitive a topic? Too much of a downer in the mostly breezy world of blogs? Not for The Washington Post, whose four-person obituary team -- affectionately nicknamed "Murderer's Row" ? has been managing its "Post Mortem" blog for nearly a year and a half. It is promoted as "the blog about the end of the story."
"We knew it was a delicate dance," Post Obituaries Editor Adam Bernstein says of the site. "You can't be offensive. Some people think it is disrespectful to even mention death in a blog. But it gives readers a bonus."
Given that there are many readers who read obits daily, offering them a blog seems a natural. But Matt Schudel, a five-year Post obit writer who also blogs, says, "There is no real day-to-day story here, like a sports team blog, following the trades and rumors. We really have to create it new each day."
One item often posted is a list of famous folks who have died on a certain day ? "This Date in Death." Bernstein, however, likes to use more original or interesting material. Often the blog posts look at how an obituary was done or what went into the research, he says, "something we came across while researching that is either amusing or insightful." He cited the March death of a leading engineer for the old Dupont television network, Thomas Toliver Goldsmith, pointing out that he had once worked at local D.C. station WTTG, and used his initials to name the station back in 1945.
When Post "Deep Throat" legend W. Mark Felt died in 2008, blogger Patricia Sullivan linked to a Web site that had audio tapes of the famed Nixon Oval Office conversations. When Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones died in August, Sullivan blogged about the fact that her death was the sixth congressional passing in 18 months, and the third African-American woman among them.
Bernstein says the blog has come in handy as the paper's print obituary space has been cut almost in half in recent years, down from a high of 12 columns some days to six and, on occasion, fewer than two. The blog has also shown that anything related to death, obits or dying is fair game. "We can occasionally go off the subject," says Schudel. One example was when Apple founder Steve Jobs revealed a serious illness and CNN accidentally posted the CEO's obit. "Yikes, every obit writer's nightmare," Sullivan wrote, noting that Apple stock then fell. "Not dead. Nope. Nada," she added. "You'd think people (and I'm talking you, stock traders) would check first."
Then there's the image of the four blog writers smiling atop the page. In a recent item, they addressed their sunny expressions, stating: "Aside from the fact that they promised us extra money for doing this blog (not), and we envision fame as well as fortune from it (ha!), the truth is that we like our jobs."