The Ballymena Observer was published for the first time in 1855 when the Crimean War was raging and the epic 'Charge of the Light Brigade' had only just taken place.

But you'd have been hard pressed to find much in the way of local news, as we think of it today, in the broadsheet pages of the Observer.
It was, essentially, an advertising medium, and, in the days when print was king, it must have raked in the money!

For Ballymena was on the verge of a boom – both in terms of population and wealth.

The industrial revolution had transformed north-east Ulster from a predominantly agricultural economy to a manufacturing powerhouse.

While the vast bulk of this industry was concentrated in Belfast, towns like Ballymena also developed their fair share of mass production factories.

The linen industry was a case in point and in the town itself and the satellite villages, many mills sprang up, replacing what had been essentially a small-scale, home-made operation.

These mills were populated by workers who, only a generation beforehand, would have been labouring on farms in the district. The downturn in the agricultural economy and the lure of steady money in the mills, brought thousands into the urban environment.

Areas such as Harryville, in the south of Ballymena, grew up purely and simply as an adjunct to the mills on the Braid River, the most famous of these being, of course, the massive 'Braidwater', the site of which is now a retail park.

At its peak, the Braidwater employed several thousand people from the local area while the smaller mills also employed sizeable numbers.
And with a growing population came the need for services.

The town began its climb to shopping stardom during this period as the town enjoyed a period of failry rapid expansion.

As commerce began to boom, so did the town's self image and, recognising the gap in the market, a local family by the name of Weir established the Observer.

Back in those days, the front page of the newspaper was devoted to advertisments extolling the virtues of everything from medical supplies to Irish Whiskey. News was actually a secondary concern and most people had to pay through the nose for coverage of their events!

However, by the turn of the 20th century, while advertisements still occupied the full front page, the Observer was carrying lots more information about the general Co. Antrim area.

One could spend days in the excellent local studies library in Ballymena just browsing through the microfiche editions of the newspaper.

Court reports always make good reading and it may surprise some to discover that Ballymena in the early 1900s was no town of saints! In fact, some area of the town were considered dangerous enough for the old Royal Irish Constabulary to patrol in pairs.

Those who have developed an interest in local or family history would do well to book a machine at the library .. but be prepared for neck-ache because once you start, it's hard to stop.

World War One, with its huge scale of casualties for the area, saw the Observer launch campaigns to purchase ambulances and to send home comforts to the 'boys at the front' – an early example of inter-action with the community and can probably be described as the dawn of the local newspaper as know it.

Photographs were still a novelty in provincial weeklies and the sheer volume of type contained within the 10 broadsheet pages which made up the average edition look daunting to the modern reader but must have been devoured by a population, which, at that time, had no access to radio or television.

By the aftermath of the second world war, the Observer had undergone radical change with new layout and design offering readers a much more 'friendly' product. Everything from whist drives to weddings were covered within these columns, mixed in with a fair amount of national news.

However, in the sixties, the change became even more dramatic as photographs began to appear in truly sizeable numbers. The transformation from the staid, advertising driven Observer of 1855 was remarkable.

Further change came when the Observer was sold to the Belfast Telegraph group in the 1970s. It continued as a broadsheet until the early 1980s when, sadly, the title of the paper was changed to the 'Ballymena Times and Ballymena Observer' (with the emphasis on Times) and the format changed to tabloid size.

By 1986, the growing power of the Lurgan-based Morton Newspaper Group, had enabled them to make an attractive bid for the Ballymena paper and the take-over duly took place in that year.

Since then, the Ballymena Times has been at the forefront of local newspaper development, pioneering colour and the use of digital technology for photographs.

Journalists, once restricted to their typewriters and notebooks, now have control of page make-up and design with the title being produced to the final print stage in the local office by local people.

When Johnston Press completed the acquisition of the Morton Group some two years ago it was obvious that even more changes were on the way.
Within weeks of the takeover, the importance of having a multi-media platform was being stressed and the eventual result has been the creation of the Ballymena Times very own website.

The Ballymena Times site, which will shortly feature locally produced video, already enjoys one of the healthiest hit rates amongst Ulster's weekly newspapers and the success seems set to continue.

However, there remains a firm focus on the print edition, which was recently relaunched with new masthead, page design and greatly increased content margin.

Times editor, Des Blackadder said: "We have seen some superb growth in our Antrim edition which now boasts a dedicated and enthusiastic team. Ballymena is still the hub of the operation and produces one of the most critically acclaimed local newspapers in Northern Ireland.

"This paper has a long history stretching back to 1855. In this new age of digi-media, we are well placed to lead the field and that will always be our intention."