Founded in Cardiff in 1869 by the Marquess of Bute, the Western Mail was initially intended to be conservative in its orientation. The publication was daily; the price was 1d, and remained so until 1900. In 1877, Bute sold the paper to Henry Lascelles Carr and Daniel Owen.

Carr had been its editor since 1869, and, under his continued leadership, it became one of Wales's foremost newspapers. From its early days, the paper claimed to be the national newspaper of Wales. It covered all aspects of Welsh life. It sought to establish itself as the foremost paper, as it advertised in 1878 in Mitchell's Press Directory: "It has been established regardless of expense and over the wide area which it covers, circulates for more extensively than all the other papers put together."

In the later years of the nineteenth century, the main rival of the Western Mail was the South Wales Daily News, begun in 1872, which fought against the Tory influence as Liberals. Occasionally, the Western Mail made news of its own, such as when, in 1893, a fire destroyed the original building in St Mary's Street. The paper was the first to have a women's supplement.

Lascelles retired from the editorship in 1901, owing to ill health. The paper is still published today.