It was founded by K. P. Kandasamy in 1977 and is currently owned by media conglomerate Sun Group's Sun Network.

[2] Dinakaran is the second largest circulated Tamil daily in India after Dina Thanthi as of 2015[update].

Dinakaran was founded in 1977 by K. P. Kandasamy after he split from Dina Thanthi owned by his father-in-law S. P. Adithanar during the split of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

[6] In 2005, the newspaper was acquired from K. P. K. Kumaran by Kalanithi Maran's Sun Group.

[2] Dinakaran is published from 12 cities in India namely Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Nagercoil, Puducherry, Salem, Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli and Vellore.