Briggs started the "Broadway Journal" in 1844 in New York City. He handled editorial duties and solicited for publications while his business partner, former schoolteacher John Bisco, handled publishing and financial concerns. One of his contributors was his friend James Russell Lowell, though Briggs disapproved of Lowell's "hot and excited" abolitionism. In December 1844, Lowell wrote to Briggs to recommend Edgar Allan Poe for a job at the new magazine. Poe became associate editor of the publication in January 1845 and co-editor a month later, also becoming one-third owner. Though Poe was a partial owner of the journal, Briggs never considered him a partner but "only an assistant". Poe called Briggs "grossly uneducated" and said that he "has never composed in his life three consecutive sentences of grammatical English." In June 1845, Briggs resigned due to financial difficulties and, in October, Bisco sold his part of the magazine to Poe for $50 (Poe paid with a note endorsed by Horace Greeley). The magazine's final publication was dated January 3, 1846.