
DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997              TAG: 9704240036

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   74 lines

NEW PUBLISHER HELPING BRING SINGLES TOGETHER

JULIUS L. EVANS hasn't had enough time to date since moving to Virginia Beach a few months ago.

He's been too busy publishing Singles Magazine, now two issues old.

The publication is filled with feature stories, ads and personal notices. Evans said he is publishing 12,000 copies every two months.

The idea for the magazine came to Evans, a 34-year-old Navy first class petty officer, when he was sitting around in a less-than-exciting barracks room at Little Creek Amphibious Base. It was the kind of room where a fellow shares his ``head'' with the man next door, and the decor was apparently selected using color swatches from the off-khaki catalog.

This was a dull situation for a man who owns a perfectly good house in Atlanta, where he was last stationed. He also drives a BMW shiny enough to reflect cosmic rays. And his desk-side radio stays tuned to a jazz station.

``I was sitting here totally bored out of my mind,'' said Evans, ``and thinking, `You know there's got to be a woman somewhere in Virginia Beach doing the same thing.' ''

Coming from Atlanta, where singles publications are easy to find, he noticed a gap in the dating-oriented publishing market.

Because Evans is a military journalist, he put his experience to use and filled the gap with Singles, a magazine that balances pages of photo-personals with articles on local celebrities and living tips that target those both in the relationship game and those on the sidelines.

As a meeting sheet with some meat to it, Evans said, Singles transcends race and marital status in the features on such prominent locals as Channel 13 newswoman Barbara Ciara.

Evans, who was a free-lance relationship columnist for a handful of small Atlanta newspapers before coming to Hampton Roads, handles all writing duties.

``We are for everybody,'' said Evans, ``as long as you're single, 21 and open-minded.''

Evans, who is divorced, has his eyes squarely on the publishing bottom line. He plans to stay with the magazine long-term. He has hired lawyers to ensure everything is done by the book. He has hired a Virginia Beach public relations firm to approach the press.

Evans himself is not shy about calling reporters. Repeatedly.

He has a research firm investigating the buying habits of singles. There might be a story there, he noted, but the information will also be helpful in snaring advertisers.

And singles who try to meet though the magazine write letters instead of using the phone. Their advertisements read more like introspective resumes than attempts to align astrological signs.

With two issues down, the jury is still out on whether Cupid has visited any of the local singles who plopped down as much as $15 to show their face and facets to the unhitched people who picked up the early editions of Singles Magazines.

``It's still a new publication,'' said Evans. ``I can't say if anybody's connected yet.''

It is for certain, however, that the editor has not.

Like a hip, bald, marketing-savvy, male version of Emma - the Jane Austen heroine who made a match for all around her yet found nary a love of her own - Evans has yet to overcome the lack of female companionship that drove him to publish Singles in the first place.

Between his Navy duties and keeping the magazine running on the personal computer in his barracks room, Evans has no time for love.

``I don't mix business with pleasure,'' he said.

A stern work ethic for a guy fond of calling his publication efforts ``one man's quest to conquer loneliness.''

Perhaps that will come later for Julius Evans.

It took even the lovely Emma a few hundred pages to land a mate. MEMO: Singles Magazine is distributed through area music stores and

nightspots. For information, call 661-6509. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/Staff

Julius L. Evans...