WESTBROOK – About half of the employees at Westbrook’s Legacy Publishing will lose their jobs next week.

Founder and CEO Steve Anderson said the layoffs, announced Oct. 23, are effective Thursday, Nov. 6, and that impacted employees have been notified via in-person meetings with management.

In an emailed statement sent to all employees, Anderson said the decision was based on the once-thriving company’s “strategic direction,” an announcement that the company would no longer use television and radio advertisements to promote products, and instead focus solely on Internet ads.

“This change requires a reduction and reorganization of our workforce,” Anderson said in the statement. “I am saddened and disappointed because we will be saying goodbye to good members of our Legacy team – people who want to be a part of this change and who have shared our enthusiasm for the future.”

Operating out of a former school building on Speirs Street off Main Street, Legacy Publishing effectively doubled in size in 2011 when it expanded its call center into an additional building on Larrabee Road. According to a Nov. 2, 2011, story in the American Journal, the company grew from an estimated 85 to 150 employees that year. While Anderson’s statement doesn’t give a specific number of employees laid off, the Better Business Bureau lists Legacy Publishing as having 175 employees.

Since the company was formed some 10 years ago, Legacy has been producing programs such as the “Total Transformation Program,” which aims to help parents address difficult children.

Bill Baker, Westbrook’s assistant city administrator for business and community relations, said Monday that he was “very sorry” to learn of the announcement last week, adding that the company had begun downsizing during recent months, making it not a “total surprise.”

Baker said Anderson and his team did not talk with city officials regarding the layoffs.

“Legacy leadership has not chosen to share any of the details of recent events with us, but I am confident in their ability to bounce back and I believe they continue to be an important presence on our Main Street,” Baker said.

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