From 1875 Moore worked for local, conservative and unionist, paper, "The News Letter," but secured international assignments for a wider range of publications, including London titles. In 1878 he reported on the Berlin Congress which reconfigured the Balkans, and in 1879 (with an enthusiasm for empire) wrote despatches from South Africa on the Zulu War. He went on to travel and report from India, Burma and South America. Back in Belfast he became arts reviewer (sometimes writing with libellous invective), leader-writer and eventually assistant editor. He was described as "a compulsive writer - never revising - with an uncannily acute and retentive memory".