By: E&P Staff Legacy.com in Evanston, Ill., has joined forces with Australia's and Canada's largest dailies and some of the largest papers in Ireland to allow more international readers to build feature-rich Legacy.com memorial Web sites and "guest books" for deceased loved ones.
Coming on the heels of new partnerships with 95 U.K. newspapers, including the Times of London, the new partnerships broaden Legacy.com's international reach beyond the 700-plus newspaper affiliations it maintains across North America and in Europe.
Australia's Herald Sun, part of News Corp. Ltd., is adopting Legacy.com's platform for obituary content in response to reader requests for expanded online memorials. "We have received numerous queries about online death notices from our older readers who also want the ability to communicate and share memories about deceased loved ones over the Web," Heraldsun.com.au. Editor Matthew Kitchin said in a statement.
And beginning this month, visitors to www.legacy.com/TheStar/Obituaries.asp will be able to search all death notices published in the Toronto Star since June. The archive is planned to reach back to 2005 in the coming weeks. The is content is also accessible via all local newspaper sites affiliated with Legacy.com.
Already using Legacy.com are 11 papers owned by Canwest Global Communications, including the National Post, Vancouver Sun and The Gazette, Montreal.
The Royal Gazette, Hamilton, Bermuda, and five Irish newspapers, including the Anglo-Celt and Meath Chronicle, are among other papers that recently adopted Legacy.com's platform, where memorial sites can include biographical information, photos, videos From guest books, visitors to Legacy.com can create interactive and share memories of loved ones.
Nearly 800,000 new guest book entries are logged each month through 10-year-old Legacy.com. Like their U.S. and European counterparts, the new sites will feature resources such as directories of funeral homes and charities.
Legacy.com also supplies timely information about the deaths of celebrities, public officials, and business, philanthropic and civic leaders, and users may create customized e-mail alerts that automatically notify them of the deaths of former friends, colleagues and associates.
Legacy.com says its network of sites attracts 13 million unique visitors per month, which it credits, in part, to its searchable database of obituaries and relevant content. Through partnerships with most of the 100 largest U.S. newspapers, Legacy.com features obituaries and online Guest Books for more than two-thirds of people who die in the United States. It also uploads government death records and maintains a database of 85 million deaths since 1936.
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