Owen Van Essen remembers the early days when he first got into newspapers, working at a small daily in Minnesota on the business side. That work eventually transformed into an ownership stake of the small daily, the Worthington Daily Globe , which he held onto for nine years in the late 1970s and early- to mid-1980s. “One of the two brothers who owned the newspaper convinced me to stay a year while he took a one-year sabbatical,” Van Essen said.
“It gave me an opportunity to really get immersed in the business as somebody quite young.” Van Essen credits the Vance family, now also the former owners of the paper, as the kickstarter to what has turned into a decadeslong career in the newspaper industry. The family and Van Essen just a few years later sold their ownership stakes, and Van Essen found new life in the side of the business that worked on the industry's many mergers and acquisitions.
Representing the sale of Van Essen’s stake in the newspaper was Lee Dirks, founder of what is now known as Dirks, Van Essen & April, a well-known newspaper merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe. Van Essen, 70, joined Dirks the same year he sold off his stake in 1986, and in the years since has helped the firm represent about half the country’s daily newspaper transactions. Now semi-retired, Van Essen sat down with The New Mexican to discuss his career, the future of newspapers and what his plans are with more free time on his hands.
This interview has been edited and c.