A blogger for Philly.com thinks it’s time for newspapers to change their policies on reporting about suicides. Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News notes that a suicide there received press coverage only because of its spectacular nature:

“Chapgar’s suicide only received coverage in the newspaper because of longstanding — and possibly outdated — journalistic rules. The guidelines haven’t changed much since I entered daily journalism 27 years ago: Suicides only make the paper if they involve famous people or a highly public death, which is what happened in the case of Chapgar, who lept from the top of Loews Philadelphia Hotel onto a busy street in Center City.”

Here’s the Post-Dispatch’s policy on suicides:

“In obituaries, our general policy is NOT to say that someone committed suicide. This is a policy of long-standing. There are exceptions, including a person of prominence in the community or a suicide that occurs in a very public place. Before a reference to suicide is included in an obituary, senior editors should be consulted.”

For the most part, the Post-Dispatch follows that same policy in news stories.

Bunch suggests that newspapers should report more about suicides — but do so in a sensitive way.

“We can all agree that families are entitled to their privacy if they desire it — which is the understandable primary reason the media tended to avoid such stories for so long. But times change — we live in a more open world, and I’ve seen a lot of people over the last couple of years who’ve written articles or taken to the blogs to write about loved ones, people who desperately wanted to talk, who wanted to share their loss with others who’ve suffered the same ordeals.

“The Philadelphia media did a good job telling the sad story of Zal Chapgar, but only because of the horrific facts of his death and the public reaction. How many more Zal Chapgars are out there silently waiting for help?”

Bunch’s blog post doesn’t mention a major reason many papers are reluctant to report about suicides: A fear of triggering copycat suicides. Some research finds that reporting on suicides does result in more suicides.