Radio Workshop

Men of Our Lives (Transcript)

by Noah Reibel

NAR: For years, E. Jean Carroll, an advice columnist for the international fashion magazine Elle, warned her ereaders about internet dating.

CARROLL: Time after time women would show up for a date, they'd fall in love with a guy and, almost invariably, it would turn out that he was married!

NAR: Stories like that prompted Carroll and her sister to create their own site- Greatboyfriends.com - where women recommend men to other women.

CARROLL: We don't have a bunch of wankers and blowhards writing about themselves. We have women who know for a darn fact that these are upstanding, all right, nice guys; and they're recommending 'em.

ELLSBERG: It just makes sense- so many women, in the offline and online dating world are concerned about whetheer the guy is safe...

NAR: Michael Ellsberg, a 25 year old salsa instructor, has three posts on Greatboyfriends . Two recommendations from ex-girlfriends and one from his sister-in-law. All those endorsements are no guarentee of a good night out.

ELLSBERG: Even though your doing a lot more screening then you would do in a bar, a bad date is still a bad date and you're waiting for the clock to tick (laughs).

NAR: The site doesn't take itself too seriously. Women rate men's egos and looks. There's a "Mother rating" - one of the scores is "Don't ask, She really did a number on him". And tthere's another catagory that guages a man's finances.

BACHMAN: The ring rating, I think, is what women are looking at...

NAR: Autumn Bachman is a 33-year-old former investment banker

BACHMAN: 'Cause I've talked to some of the guys who have the most expensive ring and they get a lot of mail. Regardless of whether they have a photo up or not. They get a lot of mail.

(NOTE: I ALSO HAVE BACHMAN SAYING "MAYBE I'D RATHER HAVE A DOWNPAYMENT ON A HOUSE." COULD BE TAGGED ON THE END OF THIS QUOTE)

NAR: Bachman started using online personals two years ago to meet people outside her immediate circle of friends. She subscribes to two dating sites: Greatboyfriends and Match.com. Bachman clicked on a guy she recently corrosponded with and explained what drew her to his profile.

BACHMAN: Well, first of all, the woman who posted him is an excellent writer. She writes beautifully. So I really liked her and, in fact, I wrote her as well (laughs)

NAR: It's too early to tell if Greatboyfriends will be as successful as other dating sites. It doesn't accept advertising. Its founders say its only source of revenue comes from the $20 monthly subscription fee. Women who post a guy get two months free. That's designed to enlarge the dating pool- and it seems to be working. The site launched in November with only 127 profiles. Now there are more than 4,000. A companion site, Greatgirlfriends.com, may come online as early as this month.

In New York, I'm Noah Reibel for Columbia Radio News

{The Numbers: Marketdata Enterprises - an independent Tampa (Florida) market research company- released a report on 12/03/02 that estimated the online dating industry's worth at $304 million in 2002. Match.com- the leader- did $117 million in 2002, Yahoo Personals was second with an estimated $63 million, Lavalife-$45 million, Udate/Kiss.com- $39 Million.

The report estimated a 25 percent growth for this sector to 1.14 Billion in 2003.