Last of Little Brown's units NYC-bound: Only support staff to remain in hub.(Bulfinch Press)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

The last two remaining boo divisions of Little, Brown & Co. will move to New York next year, leaving only support functions at one of Boston's oldest publishing houses.

Little, Brown's Bulfinch Press and children's book division will be relocated to New York sometime in the second quarter, confirmed Maureen Egen, president and COO of Time Warner Trade Publishing New York. The move is being made to bring the two divisions under the same roof with Time Warner Trade Publishing's other editorial groups, as well as its sales an marketing teams.

"It really will better support the books published by those groups," Egen said. "They will be in better contact every day ... conversations in the hall."

The move will involve between 40 and 50 editorial and production positions at the Boston office, and those employees have been offered jobs in New York.

Little, Brown's Boston office employs approximately 250 people in total, and the publisher's support functions -- including the finance, customer service, telephone sales and fulfillment departments -- will remain in Boston, according to Egen.

"They are still in Boston and will stay there," said Egen, who noted an unspecified number of telephone sales positions moved to Boston last week. "We're not closing down the Boston office, we're just moving some positions to New York."

Still, the move marks an end to Boston's editorial influence at Little, Brown, which started in Boston in 1837 and has published works by authors ranging from Louisa May Alcott to J.D. Salinger to Nelson Mandela.