END OF THE ROAD: Town & Country Travel, the quarterly supplement that once harbored hopes of being a stand-alone magazine, has been folded by Hearst Magazines, WWD has learned. Heidi Sherman Mitchell, its editor, will remain at flagship Town & Country as features and travel editor. A spokeswoman said three full-time staff members there were interviewing for other positions at the company; sources close to the title said several full-time freelancers were also affected. Launched in 2003, Town & Country Travel was a finalist in its circulation category for the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2006. That year, however, launch editor Melissa Biggs Bradley took off to eventually start her own travel Web site, and later that year the magazine was scaled back to a polybagged supplement. On Thursday, the spokeswoman repeatedly emphasized the small scale of the project. “Given the small number of people affected, and that the product never was a full-fledged newsstand magazine, but rather a polybagged brand extension, it made sense to fold the content into the flagship,” she said. Two years ago, though, when Sherman Mitchell was hired, a different spokesman insisted reporters should not refer to Town & Country Travel and the biannual Wedding spin-off as supplements, but rather as magazines.

— I.C.