While still in Spain, Hay had been offered the position of assistant editor at the "New-York Tribune"—both the editor, Horace Greeley, and his managing editor, Whitelaw Reid, were anxious to hire Hay. He joined the staff in October 1870. The "Tribune" was the leading reform newspaper in New York, and through mail subscriptions, the largest-circulating newspaper in the nation. Hay wrote editorials for the "Tribune", and Greeley soon proclaimed him the most brilliant writer of "breviers" (as they were called) that he had ever had.