In 1961, Bradlee helped organize and strike a deal by which The Washington Post purchased Newsweek magazine and by 1965, the deal led to Bradlee's return to the paper, no longer as a reporter, but as a managing editor.

Two years earlier, Phil Graham, the publisher of the paper, had killed himself after a long battle with increasingly intense manic depression. His death left the paper in the hands of his widow, Katherine. Bradlee's return to the Post, at Katherine Graham's behest, began a relationship that would reshape Bradlee's career and The Washington Post.