Rivington established himself in New York as a bookseller and printer after an earlier publishing career in London. In April 1773 he launched Rivington's New-York Gazetteer, a newspaper whose title advertised readers across Connecticut, New Jersey and the Hudson Valley. Although he initially presented it as open to competing opinions, its increasingly Loyalist position brought sharp exchanges with patriot printers and made his business a target as the imperial crisis deepened.

In November 1775 a party led by Isaac Sears destroyed his printing equipment, and Rivington went to Britain. He returned to British-occupied New York in 1777 as the king's printer. His revived newspaper soon became The Royal Gazette, carrying official notices, war reports and attacks on the American rebellion. Bookselling and a coffeehouse helped place him within the city's commercial and military information networks during the occupation.

Rivington was also associated with American intelligence. His name received the number 726 in the Culper codebook, and later accounts describe information supplied through Robert Townsend and other intermediaries. The extent and timing of this secret activity remain debated, so elaborate stories about particular messages require caution. He stayed in New York after the British evacuation in 1783 and removed the royal imagery from his newspaper, but the venture closed by the year's end. He continued in reduced circumstances and died in New York in 1802.