There's a certain poetry in The Inquirer's impending move into the old Strawbridge & Clothier flagship. For more than a century, newspapers and department stores proved key to each other's survival.
They were kindred souls in what they provided as well, general stores that stocked something for everyone, curated with broad sensibilities and deep expertise.
Our fortunes declined in tandem - as developments in technology and changes in tastes allowed consumers to do their own boutique shopping, whether looking for an ottoman or an idea.
When our move was announced this week, I did some reading at "That's the Press, Baby," a deep-niche blog about newspapers and department stores written by David Sullivan, head of The Inquirer's copy desks.
"It was department store advertising that largely enabled newspaper publishers to buy the rotary presses that created the modern mass-circulation newspaper," Sullivan wrote in 2008. "It was newspaper advertising that let department stores draw customers from across the community, the region and the state."
Looking through department-store ads from 1965, he noted Strawbridge's was discounting housewares, sporting goods, needlework, toys, china and glass, books, stationery, hangers, garment bags, candy, toothbrushes, umbrellas, fabrics, aluminum tables, bicycles, and treatments at the beauty salon.
"In other words, they had a little bit of everything for everyone. Sounds a lot like newspapers of the period, with their mixture of foreign-affairs articles and garden-club announcements, of political commentary and ship movements."
A few posts later, he found more similarities between papers and Strawbridge's in particular:
