It is printed twice weekly, on Tuesday and Friday, which is the larger edition.

The newspaper was founded as the Burnley Express and East Lancashire Observer, by printer George Frankland, from Preston, as an eight-page penny weekly.

[2] Historical copies of the Burnley Express, dating back to 1877, are available to search and view in digitised form, at the British Newspaper Archive.

The newspaper's headquarters were for many years located in Burnley Town Centre with its printworks on Bull Street on the corner with Manchester Road.

[4] Sister papers are the Nelson Leader, Colne Times and Barnoldswick and Earby Times, published Friday; The Clitheroe Advertiser and Times, published Thursday; and the Pendle Express, a variant of Tuesday's Burnley Express, published Tuesday.