DEN BLÅ AVIS

Den Blå Avis ("the blue newspaper") is closing after almost 33 years. First published in 1981, it quickly became the best place in Denmark to find or sell second-hand things (though you can also find new things on it). In 2008, the company was sold to E-Bay for kr.2.1 billion, which is quite a lot of money.

E-Bay is not closing the paper because the business is collapsing. Rather, like many other things, it has migrated to the internet, to the sister site www.dba.dk. In 2008, there were some 3 million items for sale on the site; last year that figure had risen to 10 million, and the expectation for this year is 15 million.

E-Bay had always intended to close the paper, when the balance between the print and electronic versions had moved in favour of the latter. That time has now come.

Walter Blotscher