Besides Richmond, the Times-Dispatch is a primary daily paper in the Virginia cities of Petersburg, Chester. Hopewell, Colonial Heights, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, and Waynesboro. As the primary paper of the state's capital, the Times-Dispatch is also a default paper for rural regions of the state without large local papers circulating.

The RTD has existed in some form for more than 150 years. In 1850, a newspaper called the Daily Dispatch was founded. In 1886, a competitor, the Richmond Daily Times was founded by Lewis Ginter and in 1890 was renamed the Richmond Times. In 1896, the Times acquired the Manchester Leader (founded in 1888) and launched the Evening Leader. In 1899, the Richmond News was another paper founded.

In 1903, there was a merger of Richmond's main newspapers. The Times and the Dispatch became the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and a merger of the Leader and the News became The Richmond News Leader. They came under common ownership in 1908 under the leadership of Joseph Bryan (1845-1908). After he died later that year, the land for Richmond's Joseph Bryan Park was donated by his widow, Isobel ("Belle") Stewart Bryan, and it is named for him.

Eventually, this conglomeration of media formed Richmond Newspapers, Inc., with a 54 percent ownership by Bryan family. That conglomeration is now known as Media General.

On June 1, 1992, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Richmond News Leader merged into a single morning publication called the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch entered the national spotlight after a suicide bomber penetrated the defenses of an American military base in Mosul, Iraq on December 21, 2004. The deadliest attack on an American military installation since the war began, the attack injured 69 people and killed 22, 14 of whom were US service members. Four of the 14 were Halliburton employees, four were Iraqi forces allied with the US, and two of the 14 were with the Virginia National Guard's Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion, a group that had a Times-Dispatch embedded journalists with them; these were that group's first fatalities. The terrorist group Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack. The embedded Times-Dispatch journalists' report and photographs, and the testimony of hometown Richmond soldiers were read, heard and seen across the nation after the particularly devastating insurgent attack.

In 1990, The RTD borrowed an idea from a local entrepreneur, Barry "Mad Dog" Gottlieb, to encourage a "Tacky Christmas Lights Tour" also known by locals as the "Tacky Light Tour". Every week, the RTD lists the addresses of houses where the most tacky Christmas lights can be found. This tradition has begun to spread to other cities, like Fairfax, Virginia (DC area) as well as San Francisco and Los Angeles.

On July 12, 2006, Richmond-based news magazine Style Weekly ran a cover story titled "Truth and Consequences," a piece that took a look at the Times-Dispatch's operations as the paper settled into its first year with new management. The report described new editor Glenn Proctor, who took over Nov. 14, 2005, as an "inelegant, blunt and harsh critic — to the point of saying, repeatedly, that some reporters’ work 'sucks.'" The piece described a newsroom teetering on the edge, preparing for promised changes — such as possible layoffs, fewer pages and combined sections — that eventually were realized. On April 2nd, 2009, the Times-Dispatch cut 90 jobs, laying off 59 workers, including 28 newsroom jobs.

Diane Cantor, the wife of House Minority Whip, Republican Eric Cantor, sits on Media General's Board of Directors, RTD's parent company. Because the paper serves much of the congressman's 7th district, some controversy over coverage is noted, but generally dismissed as there is no evidence that she is involved in the paper's content at all. Also, her association with the paper is noted at the end of any Times-Dispatch story about Rep. Cantor.

A prominent newspaper in the state, the Times-Dispatch frequently features commentary from important figures from around Virginia, such as officials and presidents from Virginia Commonwealth University, The College of William and Mary, and the University of Virginia. Richmond Mayor Douglas Wilder, who had articles published in the paper before he held that position, often outlines policies his administration is implementing. During the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, its Commentary sections featured some pieces by Retired Admiral Roy Hoffmann, a founding member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and resident of Richmond suburb Chesterfield, against Democratic candidate John Kerry.