Zimpapers traces its origins to 1891, when William Fairbridge established the Mashonaland Herald and Zambesian Times on behalf of the South African Argus Printing and Publishing Company.

Argus spun its Southern Rhodesia newspapers into the Rhodesian Printing and Publishing Company and went public on 8 March 1927, making Zimpapers one of the oldest listings on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

[3] Zimpapers traces its origins to 1891, when William Fairbridge, the Rhodesia representative of South Africa's Argus Printing and Publishing Company, established the Mashonaland Herald and Zambesian Times in Salisbury (now Harare).

[5][8] In January 1981, the government established the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust (ZMMT) to manage the Nigerian grant and to oversee Zimpapers through an independent board, to shield it from commercial and political influence.

[5] After the acquisition, Argus offered guaranteed jobs in South Africa to former Zimpapers staff, leading to an exodus of whites from the company.

[5] In addition, many vacant posts were filled by returning black Zimbabwean journalists and printers, particularly from Zambia, as well as by a small number of anti-apartheid South Africans, who arrived in the years after independence.

[3][5] When the Zimbabwean government created the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust (ZMMT) to oversee the Zimpapers newspapers, there were initially safeguards to guard against interference by the state and the ruling ZANU–PF party.

[8][9] For instance, the trust's constitution stipulated that civil servants, members of Parliament, and uniformed services personnel could not serve as trustees.

[8] However, the trustees were appointed by the government, and in the 1980s, information minister Nathan Shamuyarira chose appointees who lacked a personal power base and were dependent on him for their political fortunes.

[8] In addition, Shamuyarira's picks excluded trade unionists, human rights activists, ZAPU supporters, and others who might challenge the government's agenda.

[8] Beginning in the early 1980s, the Zimbabwean government began appointing loyalists to top posts within Zimpapers, who the company's former chief executive, a ZANU–PF supporter, referred to as "ZANU's hatchet men".

[8] In 1989, Geoffrey Nyarota, the editor of The Chronicle in Bulawayo, was moved to an insignificant administrative post in Harare after he exposed government corruption in the Willowgate scandal.

[8] Zimpapers managing director Elias Rusike, who was appointed by Shamuyarira in 1984, resigned in 1989 in protest of increasing political interference in the company's operations.

[8] On 14 December 2000, the board of the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust was disbanded, allowing the Zimbabwean government to exercise a more direct role in Zimpapers operations.

[15][16] In 2011, Zimpapers expanded its portfolio beyond newspaper publications with the launch of the Harare-based Star FM, Zimbabwe's first commercial radio station.