Certain newspapers in the Bay Area have changed their policies about announcing layoffs publicly. While these newspapers still report layoffs by local businesses, they’ve stopped reporting layoffs in their own newsrooms. But here’s what our readers tell us:

• BANG-EB, the group that includes the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune, laid off four newsroom employees last Friday (Sept. 12) — a graphic artist, a copy editor, a sport desker, and a local editor.

• The Examiner has laid off several employees in the past month. At least two in production (Steven Kleiff, Alejandro Marroquin) and at least one in sales (Bill Stutphen). Management also hasn’t replaced several employees who resigned. The belt-tightening is curious since the Examiner is owned by one of the world’s richest men, billionaire oilman Phil Anschutz.

• The recent transition of the publisher at the Marin Independent Journal resulted in one less senior position: Publisher Mario van Dongen went to the Santa Cruz Sentinel as the new publisher. Matt Wilson became publisher at the IJ, Doug Bunnell replaced Wilson as executive editor and Brad Breithaupt became (once again) editorial page editor. Breithaupt’s column will disappear. Also, long time IJ ad sales manager Melody Konte has accepted a buyout and will be leaving by the end of the month. Her husband is a writer at the paper, Joe Konte.

• At the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, we hear two copy editors will be laid off later this year. On top of that, management at the New York Times Co. newspaper announced that the four-day work week will be eliminated in 90 days. That announcement, we’re told, came after management visited the Contra Costa Times last month to meet with MediaNews management to find out how they run their operation. We’re hearing that the loss of the four-day work week has a large portion of the copy desk ready to walk.

If you hear any information, e-mail us at sfpen-pressclub@sbcglobal.net.