After working as an accountant, journalist (with the Melbourne Daily Telegraph), public servant and miner in Victoria and Queensland, Archibald arrived in Sydney in 1878, where he formed a partnership with John Haynes and William Macleod, and on 31 January 1880 they launched The Bulletin as a weekly paper of political, business and literary news. William Henry Traill became a partner in 1882, and the following year Archibald left for two years in London. When he returned in 1886, the magazine was struggling, and Archibald bought out the other partners.
