 Porter edited the Constellation, a newspaper in New York City that published humorous stories. Porter became interested in sports, and concentrated on the emerging sports journalism field. In December 1831, Porter published the first issue of a new newspaper devoted to covering sports and other recreational activities, which he called The Spirit of the Times. Porter imitated Bell's Life in London, a contemporary English publication covering the same subjects. The first attempt at Spirit of the Times failed quickly, and Porter sold the magazine to C. J. B. Fisher, who merged it into Fisher's publication of the Traveller, and the Spirit was combined with the Traveller as the Traveller and Spirit of the Times. During the brief period that Porter operated the Spirit, he employed Horace Greeley as a typesetter. When Porter sold the Spirit, he then went to work at the New-Yorker, which was edited at the time by Horace Greeley. In January 1835 Porter purchased the Traveller and Spirit of the Times and renamed the newspaper back to Spirit of the Times, returning to editing it. This version of the Spirit managed to survive, although with some initial financial difficulties. Porter focused on selling his paper in the south and west of the United States, and emphasized subjects of use to his readers, such as cattle breeding, farm methods, books of interest, as well as sports. The newspaper was published weekly.
