He soon befriended Van Lear Black, an American millionaire and publisher of "The Baltimore Sun" who was on holiday in London. Black hired him as his personal assistant, with MacColl accompanying him on a 200,000 mile journey across Europe, Africa and the Dutch East Indies aboard a Fokker plane that Black had hired from KLM. Upon his return to the United States in September 1927, Black offered MacColl a job at "The Baltimore Sun" as a district reporter, which he accepted. He spent two years reporting in Baltimore, during which time he met his wife, Helen, with whom he would have two children. He returned to England in 1929 and joined "The Daily Telegraph", where he reported on events both at home and aboard, including the Coronation of George VI, the wedding of Zog I of Albania and the Spanish Civil War, with MacColl being one of the first journalists to enter Madrid after its fall to Franco in March 1939.