Colorado Public Radio’s local news site Denverite is launching a “Classifieds” section to address the U.S.’s loneliness epidemic.
The project adapts traditional print newspaper classifieds for digital but only for building social relationships, not making transactions, according to Denverite reporter Rebecca Tauber and CPR Audience Editor Alex Scoville.
“It’s not for, like, looking for a babysitter, looking for somebody to mow your lawn, looking for a roommate, looking for somebody to buy your bed frame,” Tauber said. “The focus is really on friendship.”
Readers can submit free classifieds describing themselves and what they’re looking for. The posts will be published on Denverite’s website and Instagram and in its newsletter. Each classified will have its own Google Form to connect others with the post’s writer.
Editors will filter out contact information and work to ensure classified writers’ privacy. They’re also looking for “a really fun voice,” Scoville said, that will hook readers and encourage them to express interest.
Examples of uses for the classifieds could include “getting coffee with another new transplant, meeting fellow moms for walks, finding other queer people to go rock climbing with, or organizing a lizard lovers meet-up,” Tauber wrote in a July 8 announcement.
In the announcement, Tauber said she got the idea for the project when she moved from Boston to work at Denverite. When she landed in Denver, she didn’t know anyone.
“As I quickly learned, it’s hard to make friends in a new city,” she wrote.
She posted a classified ad on the feminist Jewish culture site Hey Alma, whose section inspired the Denverite project. Tauber said some of her friends noticed a classified entry on Hey Alma from Denver and sent it to her. She responded to the ad, and “that person ended up becoming, like, one of my really good friends here,” she said. “So I had a very small proof of concept.”
“It’s always kind of been my dream to be a friend matchmaker,” Tauber told Current. “So I pitched the idea to Alex, and Alex was so supportive and was like, ‘Let’s run with it.’”
Tauber said she just hopes people can use the platform to meet people and make friends, but the project also comes as loneliness is at a nationwide high. The U.S. Surgeon General has called the problem an “epidemic of loneliness,” and it comes with dramatic health impacts. Tauber attributes the problem to the COVID pandemic and social media.
“If we get some good stories back from our audience that people had a dinner party or finally found somebody who shared that one weird hobby that they had or made a friend after feeling kind of lonely here for a while, I would definitely consider that a success,” she said.
The project hopes to connect people as a public service, but it’s also helped the two co-workers make connections at their station.
“We ended up connecting with a lot of people and marketing, people in audience development and digital platforms,” Scoville said. “It was really nice to connect with other people, even when we would have to push back or compromise on ideas. And ultimately, I think that made the project stronger overall.“
Scoville and Tauber said they’ve received about 50 submissions already. They’ll post three to five classifieds every other Monday, tentatively starting July 22.