Evenimentul Zilei was founded by Ion Cristoiu, Cornel Nistorescu, and Mihai Cârciog [ro], and the first issue was published on 22 June 1992.

The newspaper was purchased along with its parent company Expres Publishing in 1998 by the German company Gruner + Jahr (owned, in turn, by Bertelsmann), which later, in 2003 sold it to the Swiss press trust Ringier;[2] at the time of purchase, Ringier representatives stated that there would be no direct or indirect intervention in the newspaper's editorial policy.

At both papers, journalists have complained that foreign owners are telling them to lessen the political coverage and tone down their negative reporting of the government.

Nonetheless, Evenimentul Zilei remained "The biggest thorn in [Adrian] Nastase's side"[4] throughout the 2004 Romanian elections.

Ten days after Năstase's defeat in the 13 December 2004 runoff elections, the Ringier group moved the EZ editor-in-chief, Dan Turturică, to Bacău (officially, to look into the possibility of starting a free newspaper there) and began changing the editorial policy, to become a tabloid.