The paper was created by Indiana instrument manufacturer Charles G. Conn (1844–1931) while he served as a United States Congressman.

[2][3] Washington Times writers and columnists included Arthur Brisbane, Ruth Jones pen name "Jean Eliot", Rilla Engle, Evelyn Hunt, A. Cloyd Gill, Homer Dodge, Avery Marks, humorist Kirk Crothers Miller, William Lenhart McPherson, Robert Halsey Patchin, "dean of the Washington press" Colonel Matthew Fitzimmons Tighe,[4][5] and William Lee Trenholm.

[6][7] Harry Atwood Colman, Louis Ashley Dougher, Earl Godwin, Ralph A. Graves, Ruth Eleanor Jones, Alonzo T. MacDonald, Arthur D. Marks, Caryll Neil Odell, M. G. Seckendorff, and Edward Dwight Shaw.

In 1954, the Times-Herald was purchased by Phillip L. Graham, owner of The Washington Post.

The Times-Herald portion of the nameplate became less and less prominent on a second line in ensuing years, however, and was dropped entirely in 1973.