On January 25, 1837, a seedling newspaper appeared on the streets of New Orleans. It was called The Picayune. Named after a Spanish silver coin worth 6 1/4 cents, it undercut the other five newspapers in town by its startling low price.

In 1914, The Picayune merged with The Times-Democrat to become The Times-Picayune.

By 1958, The Times-Picayune Publishing Corporation had acquired both The New Orleans States and The New Orleans Item. The two were merged and on September 15, 1958, New Orleans saw its first edition of the New Orleans States-Item. Newhouse Newspapers bought The Times-Picayune in 1962. It was not until 1980 that The Times-Picayune and The States-Item were merged. In 1986, the newspaper dropped The States-Item from its nameplate.

The Times-Picayune has a circulation of 304,991.