The News-Gazette publishes the following types of obituaries: Personalized obituary. Allows the family to express in their own words who their loved one was. The cost is about $10 a column inch. We will also publish a half-column photo for an additional $10 with a personalized obituary.

Free basic obituary. Available to anyone living in or formerly from our circulation area. Limited to two paragraphs of basic information. Free death notice. A single paragraph that includes name, age, town and funeral home in charge of services.

Obituaries and death notices from funeral homes in our circulation area must be submitted to our Web site, http://obituaries.news-gazette.com, by 8 p.m. each day for publication in the next day's newspaper. Our circulation area includes the following counties: Champaign, Vermilion, Piatt, Ford, Douglas, and portions of Macon, McLean, Iroquois, Coles, Edgar and Moultrie.

Funeral homes in our circulation area will have an account on our obituaries Web site.

Funeral homes outside of The News-Gazette's circulation area should call 217-351-5220 Monday-Thursday before 4 p.m. One of our newsroom employees will assist you. On Fridays and Saturdays, please call between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., and on Sundays and holidays between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. We recommend writing the obituary in electronic form, such as a Microsoft Word file, and then cutting and pasting the text on to our Web site. Photos should be submitted through the Web site as attachments to obituaries.

We will not accept faxed, hand-written or phoned-in obituaries except under emergency circumstances. Examples would be if our Web site is down or if a funeral home is having trouble with service from its Internet Service Provider. In such cases, please call our obituaries desk at 217-351-5220 or e-mail us at news@news-gazette.com and a member of our staff will assist you.

We will only accept obituaries from funeral homes, cremation societies or comparable entities that are in charge of arrangements. We do not accept obituary information directly from family members except when no funeral professionals are involved. In such circumstances, we must confirm the death through an independent source such a coroner, police or a minister.

At times, out of area funeral homes will want to submit an obituary. We have a public obituary form for you to use, which will require verification from the funeral home, often times a contact number and name will suffice. If you're not within the Central Illinois area and would like to submit an obituary please use the public obituary form.