Death provides lively copy for bloggers

Death doesn't faze newsrooms. For editors, the order of the day, every day, is gallows humor -- whistling past the old graveyard.

Newspapers, in fact, love death. Funeral notices -- aka "fun notices" in the biz -- are a profit center for papers small and mighty. Craig's List won't be taking that niche away soon.

Death also keeps readers coming back. Obituaries are among the most-read features for older readers, many of whom begin their day by viewing the parade to the grave of their age's leading personalities.

I've made a habit of reading all of the New York Times' obituaries and recommend them to you. The Times obits editors are notoriously picky about whom they include -- basically, the subjects must have changed the world in some way. The Times' obituaries are little history lessons, famously accurate and routinely compelling. You can learn about a lot about the world.

I bring this up because the truism that death makes good copy applies to blogs as well. There is nothing morbid about this, unless you make it so. A well-written appreciation of someone's life can be a shared experience for you and your readers.

On my DVD blog, I'd been looking for a good reason to weigh in on the Stanley Kubrick DVDs that were released as a pack late last fall. The Kubrick films made their Blu-ray debut at a busy time for DVD releases, and I only got around to "Eyes Wide Shut."

The news of Arthur C. Clarke's death sent me straight to the keyboard. I know little about the man or his writings aside from "2001: A Space Odyssey." Still, my DVD blog was able to connect with a story that had people talking -- and I provided something of value by quoting the man several times in a review of his most famous work.

So did you hear the one about the dying futurist and the sexy alien ... ?