After getting a tip yesterday that Garden & Gun was laying off staff and possibly folding, we contacted the company to find out what was going on. We just got of the phone with the company's president and publisher Rebecca Darwin and we're happy to report the rumors are greatly exaggerated, although everything isn't rosy at the southern lifestyle magazine.

According to Darwin, Evening Post Publishers Co. — which had been publishing G&G — will cease to do so on January 31. Originally, EPP had made a five-year commitment to publishing the magazine, but Darwin assured us (as did Pierre Manigault, EPP's chairman of the board, who was also on the call) that this decision had more to do with the dire economic situation surrounding the newspaper world than with the magazine's success. (EPP's main revenue stream comes from newspapers.)

Furthermore, G&G is "actively engaged in discussion with investors" and expects to make an announcement in the next couple of weeks, Darwin said. Manigault added that there are "three really good options on the table" and said the magazine was "in the position of trying to determine which way to go."

"The pay checks will come," Darwin assured us, and explained that the staff had been informed of the situation. There haven't been any layoffs, but "there could be changes in the future."

The magazine's February/March issues will ship in a couple of weeks and work on the April/May issue will continue.