To place an obituary, please include the information from the obituary checklist below in an email to obits@pioneerpress.com. There is no option to place them through our website. Feel free to contact our obituary desk at 651-228-5263 with any questions.
General Information:
Your full name,
Address (City, State, Zip Code),
Phone number,
And an alternate phone number (if any)
Obituary Specification:
Name of Deceased,
Obituary Text,
A photo in a JPEG or PDF file is preferable, TIF and other files are accepted, we will contact you if there are any issues with the photo.
Ad Run dates
There is a discount for running more than one day, but this must be scheduled on the first run date to apply.
If a photo is used, it must be used for both days for the discount to apply, contact us for more information.
Policies:
Verification of Death:
In order to publish obituaries a name and phone number of funeral home/cremation society is required. We must contact the funeral home/cremation society handling the arrangements during their business hours to verify the death. If the body of the deceased has been donated to the University of Minnesota Anatomy Bequest Program, or a similar program, their phone number is required for verification.
Please allow enough time to contact them especially during their limited weekend hours.
A death certificate is also acceptable for this purpose but only one of these two options are necessary.
Guestbook and Outside Websites:
We are not allowed to reference other media sources with a guestbook or an obituary placed elsewhere when placing an obituary in print and online. We may place a website for a funeral home or a family email for contact instead; contact us with any questions regarding this matter.
Obituary Process:
Once your submission is completed, we will fax or email a proof for review prior to publication in the newspaper. This proof includes price and days the notice is scheduled to appear.
Please review the proof carefully. We must be notified of errors or changes before the notice appears in the Pioneer Press based on each day’s deadlines.
After publication, we will not be responsible for errors that may occur after final proofing.
Online:
Changes to an online obituary can be handled through the obituary desk. Call us with further questions.
Payment Procedure:
Pre-payment is required for all obituary notices prior to publication by the deadline specified below in our deadline schedule. Please call 651-228-5263 with your payment information after you have received the proof and approved its contents.
Credit Card: Payment accepted by phone only due to PCI (Payment Card Industry) regulations
EFT: Check by phone. Please provide your routing number and account number.
Cash: Accepted at our FRONT COUNTER Monday – Friday from 8:00AM – 3:30PM
Rates:
The minimum charge is $162 for the first 10 lines.
Every line after the first 10 is $12.20.
If the ad is under 10 lines it will be charged the minimum rate of $162.
On a second run date, the lines are $8.20 per line, starting w/ the first line.
For example: if first run date was 20 lines the cost would be $164.
Each photo published is $125 per day.
For example: 2 photos in the paper on 2 days would be 4 photo charges at $500.
Deadlines:
Please follow deadline times to ensure your obituary is published on the day requested.
Hours
Deadline (no exceptions)
Ad
Photos
MEMORIAM (NON-OBITUARY) REQUEST
Unlike an obituary, Memoriam submissions are remembrances of a loved one who has passed. The rates for a memoriam differ from obituaries.
Please call or email us for more memoriam information
Please call 651-228-5280 for more information.
HOURS: Monday – Friday 8:00AM – 5:00PM (CLOSED WEEKENDS and HOLIDAYS)
Please submit your memoriam ad to memoriams@pioneerpress.com or call 651-228-5280.
By KEN MORITSUGU and JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — China has said it would no longer seek the special treatment given to developing countries in World Trade Organization agreements — a change long demanded by the United States.
Commerce Ministry officials said Wednesday the move was an attempt to boost the global trading system at a time when it is under threat from tariff wars and protectionist moves by individual countries to restrict imports.
It was not clear whether the announcement would lead to greater access for foreign goods to China’s vast market. The U.S. and many European countries have long complained about barriers to their exports. The change affects only ongoing and future negotiations, not existing agreements.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced the change in a speech in New York on Tuesday to a China-organized development forum at the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.
Chinese officials said Beijing’s decision was voluntary and not meant to suggest that other developing countries should follow suit.
“It’s China’s own decision,” China’s top envoy to the WTO, Li Yihong, told reporters in Geneva.
The WTO’s “special and differential treatment” provisions give some developing countries longer time spans to implement trade agreements, can lead to technical assistance from abroad and offer exceptions to some rules that richer countries abide by.
China is a middle-income country, and government officials emphasized that it remains part of the developing world. The U.S. has long argued China should give up the developing-country status because it is the world’s second-largest economy.
China “will always be a developing country,” Li said. “It’s very clear that the issue of developing member status and the special and differential treatment are related but distinct.”
Increasingly, though, China has become a source of loans and technical assistance to other countries seeking to build roads, railways, dams and other major projects, often undertaken by major Chinese state-owned companies.
The WTO says it doesn’t officially distinguish between developed and developing countries, but some nations self-identify as developing.
Chinese officials, in their statements, did not mention the United States by name or President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on many other countries this year, including China.
The WTO, which counts 166 countries as members, provides a forum for global trade talks and enforces agreements but has become less effective, prompting calls for reform.
The head of the Geneva-based organization described the Chinese move as “major news key to WTO reform” and applauded and thanked the country’s leaders in a post on X.
“This is a culmination of many years of hard work,” wrote Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the WTO director-general.
Keaten reported from Geneva.
Originally Published: September 24, 2025 at 7:03 AM CDT