Dirks, Van Essen & April

Notable work and positions

Leading merger-and-acquisition advisory firm for the U.S. newspaper and local media industry

Biography

Dirks, Van Essen & April (DV&A) is a Santa Fe, New Mexico-based merger-and-acquisition advisory firm specializing in the sale, valuation, and strategic transition of newspaper and local media companies. Founded by Lee Dirks, the firm has represented roughly half of the country's daily newspaper transactions over more than four decades, with more than 800 transactions and over $12.5 billion in value to date. Owen Van Essen, who had previously held an ownership stake in the Worthington Daily Globe in Minnesota, joined Dirks in 1986 and became a longtime partner, helping build the firm's newspaper-industry client base before transitioning to semi-retirement in the mid-2020s. Sara April, who joined as a partner, now serves as the firm's president, having gradually assumed a larger share of the firm's workload from Van Essen. DV&A has advised on many of the industry's most notable ownership changes, including transactions involving Black Press Media, Lee Enterprises, Gannett, MediaNews Group, and Carpenter Media Group, and it publishes a quarterly newsletter tracking newspaper industry M&A activity.

Career highlights

• 800+ newspaper transactions Representing more than $12.5 billion in value over more than 40 years.
• Market Signals Quarterly Newsletter Tracks and reports on newspaper industry merger-and-acquisition activity.
• Q1 2026 market report Tracked 78 newspaper titles changing hands across 18 transactions in 15 states.