Since the early 1990s the OTZ has been printed daily except Sundays in eastern Thuringia by the publisher Ostthüringer Zeitung Verlag, which is owned 40% by the Funke Mediengruppe.
Regional editions appear in Bad Lobenstein, Eisenberg, Gera, Greiz, Jena, Pößneck, Rudolstadt, Saalfeld, Schleiz, Schmölln, Stadtroda and Zeulenroda-Triebes.
[2] The OTZ arose indirectly from the Volkswacht, which was the official press organ of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) for the district of Gera.
He resigned just 10 days later was replaced by Ullrich Erzigkeit, who enforced the separation from the SED and instituted a name change of the newspaper to the Ostthüringer Nachrichten (OTN).
Since 2010, the content of the OTZ has increasingly been integrated with its sister publications from the Mediengruppe Thüringen, the Thüringer Allgemeine (TA) and the Thüringische Landeszeitung.