Platform for Singles

By Michael Demarest

A slick magazine brings cheerleaders and Redfords together

EUREKA. Howabouta traditional values woman (sans hang-ups) in tune with the '80s. You'll find me warm, gentle, sensuous, capable. . . andgreatfun. I'm either beautiful or great looking (depending upon your taste), 41, 5 ft. 8 in., slim, blonde/blue, classy, smart, spiritually healthy and intellectually curious ... I'm a high achiever professionally and will refuse to compete with you . . . well-read . . . well-traveled . . .

most of all, please share my belief that 'commitment' does not mean loss of anything.

Los Angeles or anywhere you are. FHO1172

Aaah! But a bit too good to be true? Not at all.

The ad accurately depicts the appearance, personality and interests of FHO1172, a.k.a. Suzanne Douglas. In fact, Douglas, who is founder, publisher and editor in chief of a slick, sophisticated monthly magazine called Intro ("The Single Source for Single People"), inserted the ad for herself in the March issue. It pulled 50 replies, including a letter from a divorced Chicago entrepreneur who was last seen flying warm, gentle, sensuous Suzanne in his own twin-engine Piper Navajo to Mackinac Island for the weekend.

"Why," asks Publisher Douglas, "should the cobbler go barefoot?" Why, indeed?

With some 59 million unmarried adults* in the U.S., Douglas is convinced that most are desperately lonely. Says she:

"The bestseller Living Alone & Liking It is nonsense. People don't live alone and like it. They live alone as a compromise. It's miserable being alone." To remedy that, many singles seek out partners of the opposite sex at work, parties, health clubs, concerts, museums and supermarkets, lectures, checkout counters and a myriad of other activities. And, asks Douglas (who visited a singles bar once and hated it and who is "not into sweaty sports"): "What happens then? You end up sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring, but it won't because no one knows you're there." Says she: "Loving and being loved is what it's all about." Douglas maintains that attractive people are the most likely to be lonely:

"Back in college we used to call this the cheerleader syndrome, meaning that the prettiest girl has the fewest dates because everyone assumes she already has one."

Born Susan Anne Potter in Dunsmuir, Calif., Douglas has been thrice married and enjoyed a highly successful career as a publishing executive (WomenSports) before starting her own magazine sales and marketing firm in Los Angeles. In 1976 boredom tempted her to put a personal ad ("dynamic career woman, tall, blonde . . .") in a cheap tabloid for singles. "My personal life was on hold," she says.

To her surprise she got 90 responses, including three "real possibilities" and three marriage proposals.

"And then it hit me," she recalls. "A classy life-style magazine that you could have on your coffee table, one that wouldn't come in a plain brown wrapper." With enthusiastic support from former publishing colleagues, Douglas spent more than a year formulating her magazine and then raised close to $2 million to launch it. The first issue, in August 1980, ran 177 personal ads free; the October 1981 Intro ran 1,077 personals at an average cost of $25 each.

Printed on heavy magazine paper, with a handsome color cover, Intro ($1.50 a copy) runs well-illustrated feature stories that range from lively to giddy. Examples: "If At Flirt You Don't Succeed . .."; "The Love Game: Winning Without Keeping Score"; "Practical Pets to Fit Your Life Style" (fins-down winners are fish). Regular departments cover travel, fashion, finance, food, music, film and books, and there is a column for single parents and a chatty publisher's letter by Douglas, who is prone to such breathless confessions as "I created Intro to solve my own social problems, but wanted to let all of you in on the fun, too." The magazine, put together by Editor Jim Yaeger, boasts a staff of consultants on subjects ranging from child psychology to skin care.

Intro Is main attraction, of course, is the personal ad section, divided into geographical segments and called "R.S.V.P." The ads cost $15 for the first 30 words and must be in good taste. Also anonymous. The hefty center section (40 pages in October) does not run sexually explicit language or code words such as dominant or submissive. No ads are knowingly accepted from homosexuals or married people. All replies to ads are opened and screened by Intro, which rejects any it finds offensive. "What we've done," says Douglas, "is revive the art of the handwritten love letter." By the time correspondents meet, Douglas says, "they're already over the first date because they know so much about each other."

A slight majority of those who place personals are men. Most draw a creditable picture of themselves: sensitive, traveled, adventurous, well educated, fond of outdoor sports, sunsets, music, conversation and dining out. Many note that they are nonsmokers and drink moderately, if at all. Backpacking seems to be a prime recreation. For the most part, they picture themselves as moderately attractive. One male describes himself as "better than Redford," but another confesses he is "devastatingly average." Next to physical appearance, the most frequently mentioned attraction is financial security. In a recent letter to the editor, one reader complained of the emphasis on cosmetics and financial success. "People living in the back country of Idaho don't place a whole lot of stock in 'handsome' and 'pretty,' " he wrote. "I sure wish 'honest' would appear more often."

Intro, which began national distribution on newsstands in July, plans to start East and West editions to accommodate the surge of personal ads; the magazine is also attracting some national advertising.

It is aimed unabashedly at the upwardly mobile with incomes above $20,000 a year. Publisher Douglas, who owns 51% of Intro, predicts that it will be in the black with next February's issue. "Love is a big seller," Douglas points out. "All you have to do is listen to popular music--I need it, I want it, I'm going to get it. I don't know any swinging singles. Everyone just wants love."

--By Michael Demarest. Reported by Benjamin W. Cate/Los Angeles

* Of these, according to an analysis of the 1980 census prepared by Simmons Market Research Bureau, 54% have never been married, 18% are divorced, 5% separated and 22% widowed. Some 25 million are men, and nearly 34 million are women.

With reporting by Benjamin W. Cate

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.