He was in his 60s when he first issued the weekly Gazette in early November 1725,[1] and he supported the provincial governor William Cosby upon which his livelihood depended.

Public discontent with some of Cosby's actions, which the Gazette did not cover, led to the founding of a second newspaper in 1733, The New York Weekly Journal.

The printer of that paper was Bradford's former apprentice John Peter Zenger, who the governor sued for libel, but was acquitted at trial.

[2][3][4] Bradford remained neutral over the case, and defended himself in a statement in the Gazette in 1736, though acknowledging that he had felt compelled at times to print observations favorable to the Governor, which had caused anger from Zenger and others.

In the June 17, 1728 issue, Bradford appealed for more subscribers, and for delinquent accounts to pay up, reporting that he had lost 35 pounds on the paper in the two and half-years since starting the venture.