For All the Smart Singles: This Mag's for You

During a time in which magazines are fading away, and Westchester is filling up with families, area resident Grace Bennett is standing up against all odds and launching Single&Smart.

Tapping into the 120,000 single households in Westchester county, Single&Smart magazine offers more than entertainment: it discusses divorce, how to date as a single parent and how to manage resources as a single income household.

"I find that whenever someone discovers that there's a new singles magazine coming out, there is a wave of excitement," editor Bennett said. "[They say] that it is an incredible idea, that it is so overdue."

The launch party will be held on Wednesday July 7, from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. at the new Oliver's at 128 Bedford Road in Katonah. Owner Doug Crossett said the event was a good fit; his restaurant has a big patron base of people who are single.

Bennett, a publisher and single mother of nearly four years, began to recognize that the needs for the single individual were much different than for married couples. Pairing her career in print with her growing experience as a Westchester single, she came up with Single&Smart --- due to launch this summer.

"There is an entire body of information that can be directed at a single consumer," she said. "My goal is to offer them a place, on a regional level, where they can receive information more relevant to their lives."

This place is on paper. Although Single&Smart will have an online component, it is the magazine itself that Bennett feels her readers will most look forward to.

"People still read things at their leisure, on their lap, in bed, on commute to the city," she said. "Print is still something that people value and would deeply miss if it disappeared altogether."

Like print itself, Westchester singles are determined to maintain their place in society, even though they are often not recognized. Whether it is the notion that the county is primarily about family, or an advertiser's desire to target dual-income households, singles have often gone unnoticed--- until now.

Bennett believes that advertisers will quickly recognize the importance of Westchester singles, just as she has.

"It's singles who frequent the lounges and restaurants. They're more motivated to go out and eat and drink, enjoy their lives and moving on with their lives," she said. "Singles are a force to be reckoned with."

Single&Smart will appear this summer starting June 24 at single hotspots throughout Westchester and Greenwich. It will be produced quarterly through 2011 and will also be available by subscription.