WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — The value of newspaper enterprises has in some cases dropped to zero, according to the leading newspaper broker in the United States.

            “Most have lost 25 percent of their value, some have lost 50 percent,” said Owen Van Essen. “Others have lost all of their value.

            “How did this happen so fast?,” he asked. “ The simple answer is we’ve come from having all the stars aligned (for business to be successful) to a perfect storm of bad economic developments.”

            During the last 18 months, Dirks, Van Essen & Murray has tried to sell almost $1 billion worth of newspapers, Van Essen said today at the conference of Suburban Newspapers of America. “These are very good newspapers, in very good markets. … To date, we have very little to show for our efforts.”

            Van Essen, president of the Santa Fe, N.M.-based brokerage company, said the problem isn’t that qualified buyers don’t want to own newspapers. Rather, no one can find the financing to pay for the newspapers that are for sale, even when the deal is right.

            “There are far too many people at the moment who believe (Microsoft’s) Steve Ballmer’s prediction that newspapers are just going to go away,” he said. “Unfortunately, there’s just been this tidal wave of negative news about this industry. … The story about all of the great things newspapers are doing is cloudy, and is not being reported.”

            Van Essen said the future is far better for suburban dailies and weeklies (the members of SNA) than it is for metro dailies. He expects valuations of suburban newspapers to stabilize in a few years at about six to eight times cash flow, down from a peak of eight to 10 times cash flow but up from the current multiple of four to five.

            Despite it all, as befits a newspaper broker, Van Essen is optimistic.

            “I remain very bullish on our industry,” he said. “It’s an incredibly rough patch that everyone’s doing their best to work through. I think newspaper valuations will stabilize and think they will remain viable businesses. …

            “You’ve always made a huge difference in the communities in which you publish. The communities need you to continue to make that difference. So we all lose if you don’t succeed.”