 In 1868, Pember emigrated with his wife and two sons to New York, where he started a new career as a journalist.Working for several publications, including "The New York Times" and "New York Tribune", he investigated urban crime and corruption with a journalistic style described by a contemporary as "attack[ing] the specialty of abuses like a terrier after rats, hesitating at no sort of a hole or vileness of vermin".In 1871 and 1872, Pember contributed to a lengthy series of articles in "The New York Times" on "Our State Institutions".