When the big-city press publishes a story about weekly newspapers these days, it’s usually focused on how they’re losing readers and going out of business. But last Sunday’s New York Times had a very different kind of report about a thriving weekly paper in Burlington, Vt. called Seven Days. One of the things people love about it is the personal ads, which it has published since the newspaper was founded in 1995.
Back before Craigslist and dating apps, personals were big moneymakers for newspapers, especially for alternative weeklies like the Village Voice and Boston Phoenix. The internet put an end to that. But at Seven Days, the personals are “reliably quirky, surprisingly effective and, well, very Vermont,” says the Times.
“These personals offer a new-old way of approaching dating — farmers’ market rather than meat market,” reporter Adrienne Raphel writes. “The anachronistic-seeming personals section can look like the way of the dating future: a community hub for people to gossip with neighbors, rather than an algorithmically optimized matchmaking service.”
“One of the reasons we’ve survived,” co-founder Paula Routly says, “is that we have a real community in a geographical place.”
This story got our attention at the Indie, naturally. “We could have one of those ‘missed connections’ sections,” suggested Stephen Orr: “We exchanged glances in the produce section of the Stop & Shop in February. I was wearing pajamas, an open robe, and mismatched shoes.”
Would personal ads be a hit in these pages? It’s clear from browsing the ads in Seven Days that our demographics aren’t that different from theirs. The median age of the Vermonters whose ads are featured is 67.
One ad this week is from “HippieHeart,” 75, who writes that he is “worthlessly overqualified and hopelessly hopeful” and “a long-retired college professor who has also worked his Ph.D. into employment as a canine home care provider.” He’s looking for friends and casual dating.
Another is from “wanderling,” 67, who says if he finds a match, “the person would need to be tolerant of my horrible spelling, it’s not stupidity, I just see an endless range of possibilities in vowels.” He’s looking for friends, “friends with benefits,” and “some action.”
Cora, who’s 83, says she’s “not a fan of exercise, conservatives, or early mornings” and is “super fun to be around. I can’t believe I’m the same age as old people!”
Then there’s “BusyDairyMaid,” 28, a farmer who says, “Might as well face it, I’m addicted to cattle of all kinds.”
Seven Days circulates throughout Vermont, while the Indie’s readership is concentrated at our end of the Cape. Maybe that would make people here less willing to advertise themselves. But I think it’s worth a try. After all, writing a good personal ad is a classic challenge.
I’ll go first: “Exhausted and grumpy but secretly romantic weekly newspaper editor seeks honest, passionate relationships with people of any age, queer, straight, or undecided, for playful and occasionally risky encounters with words, sentences, and paragraphs that are surprising, revealing, clever, and nakedly entertaining.”
