Citizen-J site NowPublic has laid off several members of its dozen-person staff, paidContent has been told, confirming portions of an earlier post by Reportr.net. In an e-mail message to paidContent, NowPublic’s founder Leonard Brody said that, contrary to the earlier report that the site was headed for its demise, NowPublic is “absolutely not closed.” Brody added that “we are moving forward and continuing to build.” He did not provide the number of layoffs, but did say that some staffers were dismissed due to duplications related to the estimated $25 million acquisition of NowPublic by local news network Examiner.com, which we first reported back in September. The company is controlled by Philip Anschutz’s Clarity Media Group and Brody is listed as president of Clarity Digital.