Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Yandina on the Sunshine Coast.

Its first editorial promised to "make known the wants of the community ... to rouse the apathetic, to inform the ignorant ... to transmit truthful representations of the state of this unrivalled portion of the colony to other and distant parts of the globe; to encourage every enterprise that will tend to benefit it, and in general to advance its interests, and promote its prosperity".

[2] Issue frequency increased steadily to bi-weekly in January 1858, tri-weekly in December 1859, then daily under the editorship of Theophilus Parsons Pugh from 14 May 1861.

The recognised founder and first editor was Arthur Sidney Lyon (1817–1861) who was assisted by its printer, James Swan (1811–1891), the later mayor of Brisbane and member of Queensland Legislative Council.

The first issue of the Moreton Bay Courier, consisting of 4 pages, appeared weekly on Saturday 20 June 1846, with Lyon as editor and Swan as publisher.

[citation needed] After some 18 months, Lyon and Swan disagreed on many aspects of editorial policy, including transportation of convicts and squatting.

[citation needed] John James Knight was editor-in-chief of The Brisbane Courier from 1906 to 1916, later managing director, then chairman of all of the company's publications.

[15][16] It has a proud history of advocating for its community, and in 2022 was recognised by Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick as being the catalyst for an extra $425m in funding every year for mental health services.

[21] The Courier-Mail has been described by Crikey as "one of the contestants in a close run field for worst paper in Australia... mostly predictable and dull, with occasional honourable exceptions...".

[21] In August 2011, police and the parents of a murder victim criticised the paper for falsely accusing their son of a child sex crime.

The breaches occurred in 2012 when the Courier-Mail published on its front page the names and photos of a mother and her children involved in a Family Court dispute.

[24] The paper raised controversy for depicting Indonesian president Joko Widodo with a doctored photo of bloody hands to protest against the country's decision to execute two Australian convicted drug smugglers known as part of the Bali Nine in 2015.

Its average Monday-Friday net paid print sales were 172,801 between January and March 2013, having fallen 8.0 per cent compared to the previous year.

Its average Saturday net paid print sales were 228,650 between January and March 2013, down 10.5 per cent compared to the previous year.

The Courier-Mail Book of the Year Award, co-sponsored by Queensland Government and worth A$30,000, was established in 1999,[32] and covered a range of writing genres.