The paper began as Zion's Landmark, established in 1867 by the pastor of the Wilson Primitive Baptist Church, Elder P.D.

While initially occupying only a small brick corner store, the Wilson Times upgraded and moved to a custom-built, 30,000-square-foot office building in 1983.

Elizabeth Gold Swindell announced that she had purchased the paper from the Brauff family in 1956, making her the sole owner.

Her son-in-law, Morgan Paul Dickerman II, joined the paper as associate publisher in 1957, and assisted in major expansion of the newspaper.

[1] The Wilson Times remains as "one of the few surviving family-owned newspapers in North Carolina," alongside The Daily Record, owned by Bart and Brent Adams, and Maere Kay Lashmit.

Staff members receive individual awards in the annual competition, and the newspaper earned first-place honors in its circulation division for general excellence in 2019[8] and 2018.

[13] "This newspaper tackled an important topic — the public's right to offer their views to elected officials — and it didn't let go," the judges wrote.

[14] The Wilson Times won first place in the 2022 National Headliner Awards for editorial writing by an individual or team.