Copy Editor
Last read before publish: names, numbers, house style, and the sentence that will get us a correction.
- Location
- San Francisco, California
- Department
- Editorial
- Type
- Full-time. On-site, four days a week.
- Pay
- $80,000–$105,000
- Posted
The role
InfoHandle files from many desks and still needs one person whose job is the words. The copy editor sits in San Francisco, reads what is about to ship, and catches the misspelled proper noun, the math that does not add, and the clause that overstates the sourcing. You will maintain a short house style. You will not be asked to invent a 40-page stylebook that nobody uses.
What you will do
- Copyedit news and features on deadline, including headlines, deks, captions, and bylines.
- Check names, titles, figures, geography, and whether a link goes where the sentence says it goes.
- Keep house style short and current; settle disputes without turning every hyphen into a meeting.
- Flag legal, defamation, and fairness issues to the senior editor before publish.
- Proof the Daily Update before it ships.
- Maintain a running list of repeated errors so correspondents hear about patterns, not only one-off fixes.
What you bring
- Four or more years copyediting at a newspaper, magazine, wire, or digital newsroom.
- A test will be part of the process. Fluency with AP as a baseline, and the judgment to ignore AP when the sentence is clearer another way.
- Experience with legal reads, or at least with pausing a story until someone qualified has seen it.
- Ability to work Pacific hours in the San Francisco newsroom, Monday through Thursday. Afternoons are heavier than mornings.
- Authorization to work in the United States. We cannot sponsor a visa for this role.
Helpful, not required
- Science, markets, or sports copy experience—the desks that punish sloppy numbers.
- Familiarity with HTML in a CMS or in structured story files.
Pay and benefits
California requires a pay range on this posting. For this role in San Francisco, base pay is $80,000–$105,000 a year. The offer depends on experience and the scope of the work.
Full-time roles also include:
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage, with InfoHandle covering the majority of the employee premium
- A 401(k) with a 3% match after 90 days
- Commuter benefits for Muni, BART, Caltrain, and ferry
- Fifteen days of paid time off in the first year, plus paid California holidays and a newsroom shutdown between Christmas and New Year’s
- Paid parental leave
- A $1,000 annual professional-development stipend (conferences, language study, or a reporting trip your editor signs off on)
How to apply
Send a résumé and a letter to jobs@infohandle.net with the subject line “Copy Editor.”
Finalists will take a timed copy test on InfoHandle copy. Do not send a style quiz you invented.
Write to jobs@infohandle.net. Please do not call the newsroom about an application.