It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first),[3] having been founded as a local offshoot of Singapore-based The Straits Times on 15 July 1845.

[7][6] Singapore's separation from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965 made it untenable for The Straits Times to be headquartered in Kuala Lumpur.

ceased to be the parent company of the New Straits Times (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd in October that year, when Fleet Holdings, an investment arm of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and helmed by Junus Sudin, took over operations.

[11] In 2019, the New Straits Times underwent a redesign of its masthead and cover design, which now assumes the ambition and scope of a daily newsmagazine.

[12] The new design also features more stories on various issues of national interest, with an increased emphasis on the print edition of the newspaper.

[13] Previously known as Tech&U, the pullout was first published on 1 January 1986 as Computimes, an information and communication technology (ICT) section of the New Straits Times.

On 1 January 2008, Tech&U became a weekly publication, available with the New Straits Times every Monday with an increasing consumer slant while keeping the pulse on the enterprise scene.

It aims to provide comprehensive details and reviews on almost every car on offer in Malaysia and written by some of the country's leading automotive journalists.

Lat is a long-time cartoonist for the New Straits Times, producing current, topical comics for Scenes of Malaysian Life.

[16] Following Lat's retirement, cartoonist Irwan A. Rahman has taken up the mantle of producing the paper's editorial cartoon, Wantoon Weekly, which is published every Monday.

[18] In 2012, Senator Nick Xenophon, an independent member of the Australian Parliament, was on a fact-finding mission to Malaysia when he was caught up in anti-government protests in Kuala Lumpur.

Subsequently, on 2 May 2012, the New Straits Times published an article written by Roy See Wei Zhi and headed "Observer Under Scrutiny".

The report quoted a 2009 speech made by Xenophon and turned it into an attack on Islam, ostensibly to pit Malay-Muslim opinion against the senator, who was a known associate of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Xenophon threatened to sue the New Straits Times for defamation and the newspaper quickly removed the offending article from its website.

It aims to promote the mainstream print media by giving fair space to unreported and underreported stories, and not only political ones that are sometimes, according to NST itself, "taking us nowhere".