Trusted Media Brands lays off 31 White Plains employees

Trusted Media Brands Inc. ”” formerly Reader’s Digest Association ”” will lay off 31 employees from a children’s publishing unit in October.

The news came via a Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN notice, in July.

The layoffs are part of the closing of Trusted Media Brands’ Studio Fun International U.S., which published licensed children’s books.

“The closing of Studio Fun International U.S. is the next step in executing on our strategy to focus on our core businesses and brands,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “We’re committed to the company’s long-term vision of being an iconic, multi-platform media company.”

The layoffs will affect employees in Trusted Media Brand’s White Plains office on 44 S. Broadway.

Reader’s Digest Association rebranded to the Trusted Media Brands name in September 2015. The company was headquartered in Chappaqua from 1939 to 2009, when it declared bankruptcy and moved its headquarters to Manhattan. In March, the company announced it would shift about 40 editorial employees from Manhattan to White Plains, bringing its staffing totals at 44 S. Broadway to about 200.