 | |
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
| Available in | primarily English |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Owner | Legacy.com, Inc. |
| Founder(s) | Stopher Bartol |
| CEO | Stopher Bartol |
| Industry | Internet industry Media |
| URL | www |
| Advertising | Banner ads, promoted links |
| Current status | Active |
Legacy.com is a United States–based website founded in 1998,[2] the world's largest commercial provider of online memorials.[3] The Web site hosts obituaries and memorials for more than 70 percent of all U.S. deaths.[4] Legacy.com hosts obituaries for more than three-quarters of the 100 largest newspapers in the U.S., by circulation.[5] The site attracts more than 30 million unique visitors per month and is among the top 40 trafficked websites in the world.[4]
Legacy, along with the smaller Column.us and its subsidiary Modulist.news, provide significant income to newspapers for obituaries which survivors write and pay newspapers to print, over $50 million from late 2022 to early 2024. Overall US newspapers earn $500 million per year from paid obituaries.[6]
Legacy.com attaches a publicly accessible guestbook to most of the obituaries it hosts,[7] which enables anyone with an Internet connection to pay tribute to someone whose obituary appears in one of Legacy.com's affiliate newspapers or is self-published on Legacy.com. The company reviews more than 1,000,000 guestbook entries each month to make sure that entries are appropriate and sensitive to those close to the family. About 75 percent of all guestbooks receive entries. As of 2016,[update] the company was approaching 100 million guestbook entries on its site.[5]
Legacy.com is a privately held company based in Chicago, Illinois,[1] with more than 1,500 newspaper affiliates in North America, Europe and Australia,[4][8][9] including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Manchester Evening News.[10] The executive team was previously led by Steve Parrot, and is led by CEO Stopher Barto as of 2016[update].[11]
- ^ a b "Hi, we're Legacy.com". Retrieved January 24, 2023.
- ^ "About Us – Legacy.com". Legacy.com. Archived from the original on July 15, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
- ^ Hampson, Rick. "Legacies of war dead endure" Archived August 10, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. USA Today, May 22, 2009. Accessed September 18, 2009
- ^ a b c Keagle, Lauri Harvey. "Death in the Dot-com Age" Archived October 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, NWI Times, October 10, 2009. Accessed October 12, 2009
- ^ a b "Legacy.com Achieves Milestone: 650 Newspaper Affiliates". Reuters, April 28, 2008. Accessed February 24, 2009.
- ^ Mitchell, Bill (October 24, 2024). "Obits for a paper's long-time staffer underline new approaches to media competition and collaboration". Poynter. Retrieved October 28, 2024.
- ^ Urbina, Ian. "In Online Mourning, Don’t Speak Ill of the Dead" Archived February 21, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. The New York Times, November 5, 2006. Accessed February 24, 2009
- ^ Quenqua, Douglas (July 14, 2009). "Better Grieving Through Technology". Media Magazine. Archived from the original on October 24, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
- ^ Kirsner, Scott."Monster.com founder sees untapped potential in death notices" Archived September 11, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, The Boston Globe, August 23, 2009. Accessed September 18, 2009
- ^ "Interactive online death notices for Midlands newspaper company" Archived December 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Hold the Front Page, November 12, 2007. Accessed February 24, 2009.
- ^ mlemay (October 25, 2016). "Leadership Team at Legacy.com". Legacy.com. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2016.