Founding The
ODT was founded by
William H. Cutten and
Julius (later Sir Julius) Vogel during the boom following the
discovery of gold at the Tuapeka, the first of the Otago goldrushes. 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. Vogel had arrived in Otago in early October 1861 at the age of 26 and soon took up employment at the
Otago Colonist, which was owned and edited by William Lambert. Within several weeks he left and joined its rival the weekly
Otago Witness newspaper as editor and also became its co-owner when he purchased a half share in the business from Cutten. The business becoming Cullen and Vogel. Vogel convinced Cutten that due to the explosion due to the gold rush in population (from 12,691 in 1860 to over 29,000 by the end of 1861) now was the time to publish a daily newspaper. Originally styled
The Otago Daily Times, the
ODT was first published on 15 November 1861, making it
New Zealand's oldest surviving daily newspaper. and William Harrison. Vogel took on Farjeon as his junior partner in what became J. Vogel & Co. By early 1865 the business was struggling financially. The government took exception to these comments. Vogel was serving in a senior position in the government and there was suspicions that as Vogel's departure from the newspaper had been somewhat acrimonious, he still harboured a significant grudge: The government managed to locate evidence that identified that Barton was author of the articles and prosecuted him for libel. In the process of gathering evidence the government offered Otago Daily Times staff a 'pardon in advance' so they would not incriminate themselves in giving evidence against Barton. After he was committed for trial in January 1871, the case was dropped. Barton was not inclined to let matters rest and in March 1871, he launched a writ against Charles Lemon the head of the Telegraph Department, accusing him of a breach of the Telegraph Act (1865) over the so-called Stafford Timaru speech affair. In his writ Barton accused him of obtaining a copy of a report that a reporter had sent by telegraph on a speech by William Stafford in April 1870 and allowing it to be used for political purposes. Barton argued that the telegram was effectively the private property of
ODT, but his claim was rejected by the court. 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. When
Richard Twopeny resigned from the editorship of the
Otago Daily Times in 1890 after a disagreement with the directors, Fenwick also took on the editorship duties,. On 5 January 1998 the
ODT published for the first time on a new
Goss International printing press; on the same day it introduced a new
masthead reading simply "Otago Daily Times", marking
Otago's 150th anniversary year of
Pākehā settlement.
Into the 21st century On 16 March 2016, the newspaper launched a metered
paywall on its website limiting readers to between 15 and 20 free articles per month before having to pay a NZ$27 monthly subscription. While
The Spinoff claimed that this made the
Otago Daily Times the first major news publisher in New Zealand to implement a paywall, StopPress stated that the
ODT was following the lead of other domestic news publications including the
Ashburton Guardian, the
Gisborne Herald, and the
National Business Review. The
ODT did not implement its paywall until September 2022, with new subscribers being charged NZ$15 a month while print subscribers were able to access online content for free. In late July 2025, the newspaper's owner Allied Press merged with its subsidiary
Star Media to form a consolidated brand called
Allied Media.
Milestones • 1861 – 15 November: first edition. • 1881 – price dropped to one penny. • 1898 – first
linotype machines installed. They were supplied by the English Linotype Company following a visit by Fenwick in 1897 the United States and Britain to investigate suitable machines. • 1900 – first
photoengraving plant installed. • 1949 – first full-time cartoonist employed. • 1952 – November: the ODT became the first New Zealand metropolitan paper to print news rather than classified advertisements on the front page. • 1955 – new general printing department inaugurated. • 1956 – wire photographic equipment installed. • 1961 – new enlarged format. • 1966 – first full colour gravure pre-printing. • 1978 – 13 and 20 October: no edition due to journalists' strike; first missed days of publication in 117 years. • 1979 – November:
Evening Star ceased publication; ODT size increased to compensate. • 1980 – August: three separate editions published for first time, serving Dunedin city, North Otago, and Central/South Otago. • 1981 – July: first computerised publishing. • 1987 – December: change to coloured
masthead, simplified to "Otago Daily Times" with no "the". • 1988 – November: new typeface and formatting. • 1998 – 5 January: new Goss International press; new masthead reading simply "Otago Daily Times" • 1990 – June: first full-process colour printing. ==Policies and personages==