Westport-based Moffly Publications said today it has laid off 18 staffers and will reduce the frequency for a number of its magazines, including Westport Magazine, the trade magazine FOLIO: reported.

The 18 staffers make up about 35 percent of its overall workforce, the report said.

Beginning with the January issues, Moffly’s Westport and New Canaan-Darien magazines will go from a monthly frequency to bimonthly . AtHome in Fairfield County will go from six issues per year to four, starting in 2009. Moffly’s Greenwich magazine will remain a monthly, according to FOLIO:.

According to CEO Jonathan Moffly, the company has been affected by the “collective belt-tightening” as a result of the down economy and, in turn, has accelerated its rebranding plans from Moffly Publications to Moffly Media, FOLIO: said.

Derma Clinic: Playhouse Square mainstay for 29 years. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo
UPDATE Westport’s Derma Clinic European Day Spa, a mainstay in Westport’s Playhouse Square shopping center for 29 years, announced today it will close on Dec. 7.

Patricia O’Regan Brown, founder and president, said in a statement it was with great regret that she was facing the reality that she must close the clinic. She cited the downturn in the economy and her current fragile health.

On Dec. 31, Derma Clinic filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy, listing assets of $50,000 to $100,000 and liabilities of $100,000 to $500,000.

“When Derma Clinic opened its doors 29 years ago, it was the first and only Day Spa in Westport,” O’Regan Brown said.

By Dave Matlow

Jay Kowalsky: “Shaw’s is rundown.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Frustration with the repeated failure by supermarket tenant Shaw’s to upgrade its Westport store led to a decision not to renew its lease and negotiate with a new tenant,The Fresh Market, a specialty grocer, according to the owners of the Post Road East shopping plaza.

Jay Kowalsky, president and treasurer of Kowalsky Real Estate owned by the longtime Westport Kowalsky family, said he had been talking with Shaw’s and prior owner Grand Union for 10 years about updating and modernizing the store.

“Shaw’s is rundown,” he said. “The current and prior owners have been talking about remodeling for around 10 years and nothing is happening.”

Kowalsky said he had been in talks with The Fresh Market, an 84-store chain based in Greensboro, N.C., for about three months.

UPDATE Westport’s Shaw’s Supermarket on Post Road East will close on Jan. 10, a company spokeswoman said today. The shopping center owner said a new food retailer, The Fresh Market, is expected to take its place in about a year.
Shaw’s will close on Jan. 10 with a new food retailer reported likely to take its place in about a year. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The West Bridgewater, Mass.-based company has been the anchor tenant in the shopping center at 605 Post Road East since taking over from Grand Union in 2001.

Judy Chond, a Shaw’s spokeswoman, confirmed a WestportNow report of a January closing and said the store will shut down Jan. 10 with about 90 employees affected.

“We worked diligently with the property owner but could not come to a mutually acceptable agreement,” she said.

The New York Times Sunday Connecticut section focuses on the effects of the weakened economy on Westport. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo
In a front page story and pictures filling half a page, the Sunday New York Times Connecticut section says the effects of the battered U.S. economy are being felt in Westport too.

Under the headline “In a Wealthy Town, ‘It’s Not Like It Was,” the newspaper said, “For a while, this wealthy town on Long Island Sound seemed insulated from the nation’s economic woes, but all that changed six weeks ago with the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent tsunami on Wall Street.”

The Times added: “Merchants in this posh community 47 miles from Midtown Manhattan are feeling the low rumblings of an economy that is readjusting to the events of the last few weeks.”

The 1,300-word story with four pictures noted that with a median family income of $152,894 — well above the state median of $65,521, according to the 2000 United States Census — “Westport exemplifies the good life, one that has been largely financed by profits on Wall Street.”

Two members of the Junior Achievement Club at Staples High School presented First Selectman Gordon F. Joseloff with a candy-filled pumpkin, one of the products produced by their company named Klox (“always moving forward”). Pictured are Lindsey Runkel, 17, and Hayden Meinero, 17. The company, under the sponsorship of Westport’s Terex Corporation, sold almost 100 Halloween products and is working on hot chocolate kits as its next product. More than two dozen Staples students are involved in the company. They meet weekly with Terex executives who coach them on their business. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Workers preparing a new site for a branch of Fairfield County Bank at Post Road East and Compo Road South removed some large trees on the property today. The bank said in a statement its design calls for “conservation and protection of many of the trees now located on the property.”  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com