About Ballina Times

Ballina Times

Overview

The Ballina Times is a free weekly community newspaper serving Ballina and the surrounding Ballina Shire on the Far North Coast of New South Wales, in the Northern Rivers region. It was launched in July 2024 by Times News Group, the regional publishing company owned by Surf Coast News Australia Pty Ltd, as part of a three-masthead expansion onto the New South Wales North Coast alongside the Byron Coast Times and the Tweed Coast Times. The Ballina Times publishes in print, online and across social media, with a deliberately hyperlocal brief: council and community news, events, entertainment, sport and property in and around Ballina, Lennox Head, Alstonville, Wollongbar and Wardell. Its dedicated section of the group website is published at timesnewsgroup.com.au/ballinatimes/.

History

The Ballina Times is a young newspaper in an old newspaper town. Ballina's first newspaper, the Ballina Pilot, was founded in the 1880s by George Pynchon, who chose the town for a paper believing it would become a larger and more important centre. The modern Ballina Times, however, has no connection to that title: it was created from scratch by Times News Group and announced on 12 July 2024, when the group added the Byron Coast Times, Tweed Coast Times and Ballina Times to what was then a stable of 13 mastheads across Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. Announcing the launches, managing director Warick Brown emphasised the group's aim to share "hyperlocal news content free" in print, online and across social media, telling AdNews: "A community-first approach is important to us. We focus on providing important information about events, entertainment, sport, and all things property in our real estate guide. People still love a printed paper, especially one that is well-designed, looks welcoming, and has great local stories that help readers feel connected."

The launch formed part of a deliberate expansion strategy by Times News Group, which has built its name by creating and rescuing local papers at a time of widespread regional newspaper closures. In October 2024 the Ballina Times was registered with the Australian Communications and Media Authority on the Register of Eligible News Businesses under Surf Coast News Australia Pty Ltd. The Public Interest Journalism Initiative's Australian News Data Report for July 2024 likewise recorded the Ballina Times, Byron Coast Times and Tweed Coast Times as new New South Wales mastheads operated by Surf Coast News Australia Pty Ltd, part of a small number of newspaper launches in a period dominated by closures and contractions elsewhere in regional media. In June 2026 the group's New South Wales network was further strengthened when Times News Group acquired the Narrabri Courier, Gunnedah Times and Wee Waa News — titles that had closed only a month earlier, the Narrabri Courier having been published since 1913 — and returned them to publication from 11 June 2026, taking the group to 17 mastheads across Victoria and New South Wales. Of the rescued titles Brown said: "These newspapers have earned the trust of their communities over many decades. Our role is not to change what makes them special. Our role is to ensure they have a future."

Programming and Content

The Ballina Times covers the standard round of a community weekly, weighted to its patch. News coverage includes Ballina Shire Council, police and emergency services, health, education and development issues; recent stories indexed from the paper include an appeal for public assistance to locate a woman missing from the state's far north coast, a community campaign to complete the Northern Rivers Rail Trail, and the legal fight to save the Bangalow bowling club, in which Ballina's Cherry Street Sports Club was among the clubs invited to consider an amalgamation. Community features include the "Town by Town" series profiling small localities in the hinterland, such as McLeods Shoot. Entertainment coverage takes in touring acts visiting venues such as the Ballina RSL Club, and sport spans local clubs through to events such as the Ballina Business Awards — at which local firm ENV Solutions claimed Business of the Year — and golfers from the Northern Rivers seeking to qualify for the NSW Open. Property is a signature section: the paper's real estate guide carries agent profiles and market coverage for Ballina and Lennox Head. A memorable piece of nature photography coverage, "No fluke", reported a Myocum landscaper capturing two humpback whales breaching in synchrony during a whale-watching cruise off Brunswick Heads.

Audience and Reach

The Ballina Times is aimed at residents of Ballina Shire and the nearby Northern Rivers communities, and is distributed free, consistent with Times News Group's model of free hyperlocal papers supported by advertising, including its real estate guide. It is a member of Country Press Australia. The paper does not publish an independently audited circulation or readership figure in the sources consulted, and none is claimed here. Its journalists' work is syndicated and tracked by media-monitoring services, which record bylines from Ballina Times reporters including Abby Pardew and Nathan Rivalland, and freelance contributors such as Angela Saurine.

Digital Presence

The Ballina Times publishes online through its section of the Times News Group website, timesnewsgroup.com.au/ballinatimes/, where its stories appear alongside those of its sister mastheads; journalists file across the group's northern titles, so Ballina Times stories also surface under the Byron Coast Times and Tweed Coast Times brands. Print editions of Times News Group titles are published to the group website in digital form, and the group promotes its papers through LinkedIn and other social channels — the 2024 North Coast launches were announced on the group's LinkedIn page. Muck Rack's monitoring of the site records Ballina Times articles published through 2026, confirming the title's continuing digital output alongside its weekly print edition.

Ownership and Organisation

The Ballina Times is published by Surf Coast News Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 66 131 276 303), trading as Times News Group. The group's managing director is Warick Brown, who is also the registered contact for the Ballina Times on the ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses. Times News Group began in Victoria — its founding title is the Surf Coast Times — and by October 2026 its registered mastheads included the Ballarat Times, Bellarine Times, Bendigo Times, Geelong Times, Surf Coast Times, Golden Plains Times, Armstrong Creek Times, The McIvor Times and The Moorabool News in Victoria; the Ballina Times, Byron Coast Times, Tweed Coast Times, Lismore Times, Gunnedah Times, Narrabri Courier and Wee Waa News in New South Wales; and the Mt Gambier Times in South Australia, the latter held through the related company SEG TNG News Media Pty Ltd. Brown has described the group's philosophy in terms of rescue and continuity: "In the past five years we were able to save the McIvor Times in Heathcote, which is now 163 years old, and the Moorabool News, 154 years old," he said in June 2026. "When a local newspaper closes, communities lose far more than a publication. They lose a watchdog, a storyteller, a historical record and one of the few institutions dedicated entirely to covering local issues." No separate editor for the Ballina Times alone is publicly named in the sources consulted, and none is asserted here.

Contact and Availability

The Ballina Times is available free in print each week at outlets around Ballina Shire and online through its section of the Times News Group website, timesnewsgroup.com.au/ballinatimes/. The contact recorded for the newspaper on the ACMA Register of Eligible News Businesses is Warick Brown of Times News Group, telephone 0438 778 266, email warick@timesnewsgroup.com.au.