The Friday-morning edition carries the A-magasinet supplement, featuring articles on science, politics, and the arts.

During World War II, Aftenposten, due to its large circulation, was put under the directives of the German occupational authorities, and a Nazi editorial management was imposed.

[10][13] In the late 1980s, Egil Sundar served as the editor-in-chief and attempted to transform the paper into a nationally distributed newspaper.

The evening edition was only circulated in the central eastern part of Norway, i.e. Oslo and Akershus counties.

[16] Aftenposten opposed the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1935.

Historically, Aftenposten has not received the same number of lawsuits or as much attention from the Norwegian Press Complaints Commission as some of the larger tabloids.

In 2007, Aftenposten alleged that Julia Svetlichnaya, the last person to interview the murdered Russian national Alexander Litvinenko, was a Kremlin agent.

London correspondent Hilde Harbo admitted having allowed herself to be fed disinformation emanating from the Russian emigrant community without investigating the matter properly.

In 2011 the newspaper was criticized by Jon Hustad for publishing conspiracy theories that promoted the false claim that convicted Soviet spy Arne Treholt was innocent, based entirely on a book by convicted fraudster Geir Selvik Malthe-Sørenssen that was revealed to be based on a fabricated source.

[19] In a study dated 2016 Aftenposten was found to contain the epithet Negro (Norwegian: neger) at the highest frequency in the period between 1970 and 2014 with 674 references.

[20] In 2021, the paper was criticized by the youth organization of the National Association for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender People for allegedly publishing articles that promoted transphobic conspiracy theories about trans women.

Due to its status as the country's largest and most influential newspaper, Aftenposten therefore had a significant influence on the developments that took place during the Norwegian language struggle.