Dirks, Van Essen & Murray is the leading merger-and-acquisition firm in the U.S. newspaper industry. Since its inception in 1980, the firm has focused primarily on assisting companies in the sale, acquisition and valuation of daily and weekly newspapers for a variety of purposes. It has thus established itself as the industry's top authority on transactions and valuations. In addition, DV&M offers comprehensive operational and financial consulting services to newspaper companies.

The firm has successfully closed hundreds of newspaper transactions and has handled many more deals than all other firms combined. Since the mid-1990's, Dirks, Van Essen & Murray has been involved in more than half of all daily newspaper transactions, while all other firms combined have accounted for less than 20%