The ODT is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a combined print and digital annual audience of 304,000.

[1][2] Founded in 1861 it is New Zealand's oldest surviving daily newspaper – Christchurch's The Press, six months older, was a weekly paper until March 1863.

Co-founder Vogel had learnt the newspaper trade while working as a goldfields correspondent, journalist and editor in Victoria prior to immigrating to New Zealand.

[7][4] The transformation of Dunedin in a short space of time into a large and prosperous town eager for news combined with the literary control of Vogel and management skills of Farjeon lead to the ODT rapidly gaining readers and advertisers.

William Lambert the owner of the Otago Colonist offered the use of his printing plant, with the condition that as he was deeply religious, they could use it until after midnight on what was to him the sacrosanct Sunday.

As more and more people were attracted to the goldfields the business had trouble retaining employees, despite paying staff such as compositors double that of those in similar positions in Melbourne.

Vogel identified that the completion of telegraph lines as the country was opened up gave the daily ODT an advantage The completion of a telegraph line from Campbelltown later Bluff) to Dunedin in August 1862 in particular allowed the ODT to gain quicker access to international news as Bluff was the first New Zealand port of call for ships carrying English and Australian newspapers before travelling up the coast to Dunedin.

[5] Vogel arranged for summaries of the foreign news to be prepared by an employee of the Argus newspaper in Melbourne, put on a mail ship and then dispatched by telegraph to the ODT when it arrived in Bluff.

As a result, Cutten's and Vogel's own Otago Witness declined in importance and slowly became a digest of reprints from its daily sister and original material oriented towards country readers.

[5] The bank was awarded £500 in damages which highlighted to Cutten, a man of a contented disposition, that as well as the pressures of producing a daily edition there was also sufficient financial risks.

[5] With Vogel beginning his political career, the partners sold a majority shareholding in the business in March 1865 to a number of prominent Dunedin citizens on the condition that they were kept on as manager and editor respectively.

[9] The new owners formed a public company in 1860, the Otago Daily Times and Witness Newspapers Co. Ltd which was funded by issuing £6,000 worth of debentures at 10% offering interest.

[7] Using the offices of the Evening Star Vogel in partnership with others launched the New Zealand Sun on 16 November 1868 as a morning rival to the ODT but it lasted only until 20 March 1869.

[4] In October 1870 Barton had published articles in the alleging that the Telegraph Department delayed news telegrams for the ODT until summaries had been given to pro-government newspaper in Wellington.

Mr Vogel, it appears, alleges that the proprietors of the journal in question did not treat him well, and in order to be revenged on them he has never ceased to pursue his successor with every annoyance that could suggest itself to a little mind and a naturally spiteful nature.The government managed to locate evidence that identified that Barton was author of the articles and prosecuted him for libel.

[11] Soon recognizing after several months in the position that it was impossible to make headway against the ODT and thus stem the losses that the business was incurring Fenwick recommended to the directors of the company that they sell both the Otago Guardian and the Southern Mercury if possible, and, if not, to cease the publication.

Taking his advice, a new owner was found in April 1876 the form of George McCullagh Reed who had moved to Dunedin earlier in that same year and, possibly with financial assistance from his former partner in the Auckland Star, Henry Brett, established in partnership with George Jones a new paper, a third iteration of the Evening News, for the purpose of supporting the threatened provincial system.

[12][5] When deciding to purchase the publications Reed believed that he could redeem the newspaper's fortunes by the sheer force and power of bis writing and editing.

[11] Fenwick had a brainstorm and staggered Reed when he proposed that they should endeavour to obtain the ownership, via a reverse takeover of the much larger and more prosperous ODT and the Otago Witness.

[11] A prospectus was issued in April 1878 with William H. Reynolds, H. S. Chapman, Sir John L. C. Richardson, Robert Stout, Robert Campbell, Thomas Hocken, George Fenwick, James Marshall, Walter Guthrie, Bendix Hallenstein, Henry F. Hardy, John Reid, and Richard H. Leary listed as among the provisional directors, of a company to be known as the Otago Daily Times and Witness Newspapers Company, Ltd.[11] The capital was £40,000 in 4,000 shares of £10 each, of which £7.10s was to be called up.

William H. Reynolds, Thomas Hocken, Richard H. Leary, Walter Guthrie, James Smith, and George Fenwick were elected directors.

[11] The result completely justified as the reduction as the circulation of the ODT rapidly increased initially to 4,100 and then to 4,000 to 6,000 in 1882[5] at the expense of its rival which steadily declined until after a hopeless struggle it became an evening paper in May 1884 and changing its name to the Evening Herald’ Despite this and a change of ownership it ceased publication in August 1890 when it merged with the Globe a liberal publication that had been launched in response to a maritime shrike.

Even after the end of the war the landed cost of newsprint continued to climb, reaching at its peak £60 a ton which forced the newspaper to increase in price on 8 March 1920 to 2d a copy.

[14] As a result, the Allied Press, now publishes the ODT and several smaller papers throughout New Zealand, including the Greymouth Star and the former The Lakes District and Central Otago News.

[19] While having politically conservative views during Fenwick's long tenure,[5] the ODT was active in many campaigns for social reform, none more important than the exposure of sweat shop following the sermon by Presbyterian minister Rutherford Waddell in October 1888 "On the sin of cheapness", against sweat-shop labour in the clothing industry.

[11] The cause was taken up by George Fenwick in a series of articles written by the newspaper's chief reporter Silas Spragg (1852–1935) and published in January 1889 which described working conditions in Dunedin.

In December 2019, the Otago Daily Times was heavily criticized for publishing a cartoon by the Queenstown–based cartoonist and painter Garrick Tremain which seemed to mock a measles outbreak in Samoa.

[24] Her views on misogyny and the "toxic masculinity" evidenced by the nation's rugby culture drew considerable complaint in the ODT's letters to the editor pages.

[24] After finishing her Master's degree Lovelock left journalism to continue her career as a musician and won the Taite Music Prize for Best Independent Debut in May 2020 for her album Relief (2019).

[25] The Otago Daily Times is delivered with the following regular inserted tabloid supplements: The following sister publications of the ODT are weekly free newspapers: