The Bristol Observer started out as the Kingswood and Keynsham Observer, a weekly paper, but at this time it was a paid for publication. In 1981 it became part of the Bristol Observer series and was distributed free. It underwent changes in editorial format and style, including a trashy sensationalist incarnation edited by Peter J. O'Reilly for a few years in the early 2000s. It subsequently largely comprised a small selection of bland "repurposed" material from its sister Bristol Post, with Post editor Michael Norton also notionally overseeing the Observer.