Readers can then sign guest books, add pictures and leave messages of condolence – which can be a great comfort to the family of the deceased – and details are added to the Legacy.com database. This allows people to search for relatives and friends worldwide, finding out details about their lives (and deaths) and storing them online for posterity.

Speaking to How-Do about the initiative, Nick Turner, CN’s head of digital content, commented: “It’s a feature that can help on both a personal and editorial basis.

“For example a couple of weeks back we ran with a story of a person that died at a local music festival. We then put a notice and guestbook online and invited people to pass on their sympathies to the family. Almost instantaneously our readers started to interact and we very quickly had over 200 messages posted. I think the family greatly appreciated it and hopefully found some comfort in the response.”

He continued: “Also, editorially it allows us to reflect on the passing of well known local people or deal with local tragedies. It connects us to the events and people in a more tangible way and allows our readers to say how they’ve been touched.”

Turner was also keen to add that they are safety nets in place to stop abuse of the facility, with each comment being moderated three times, in real time, before posting.

CN is not the only local paper to have linked up with Legacy.com, as the Manchester Evening News also offers the same facilities. The moderator function is said to have been used quite heavily on that paper’s website after the recent passing of comedian Bernard Manning.

CN publishes more than 8,000 family notices and 14,000 death and related notices in its newspaper portfolio each year.

http://www.cngroup.co.uk/

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