Following the war, Bradlee and several investors started up a small paper in Manchester, N.H. called the New Hampshire Sunday News, which Bradlee served as the largely ceremonial role of city editor. But the experience and some family connections helped Bradlee obtain a reporter position that started on Christmas Eve 1948.

A year later, he landed his first front-page story with a dramatic first-hand account of a near-suicidal leap of a military private from the 14th floor of the Willard Hotel across the street from the White House in Washington.