Binzen, Philadelphia biz columnist, dies at 94

Peter Binzen, a business columnist for the Philadelphia Bulletin and then the Philadelphia Inquirer in the 1980s and 1990s, died Wednesday at the age of 94, reports Bonnie Cook of the Inquirer.

Cook writes, “After the Bulletin folded on Jan. 29, 1982 due to declining circulation, changing reader habits and difficulties delivering the PM daily through rush-hour traffic, Mr. Binzen took a brief hiatus. Then, prompted by Roberts, he joined the Inquirer’s business department in 1983.

“What isn’t widely known is that Roberts had attempted to hire Mr. Binzen away from the Bulletin a year before it closed.

“‘At one point, he accepted the offer,’ Roberts said. ‘Thinking it over, he didn’t want to appear to be deserting the ship when it was sinking, so he backed out, but said if the Bulletin closed, he would like to be first in line.

“‘He was one of very best reporters in Philadelphia and I would say the nation. He was always high, right at the top of the list of Bulletin people we wanted on the Inquirer because he was a real student of Philadelphia, and he really cared about the city and the Philadelphia area, for that matter.’

“At the Inquirer, he wrote a weekly column, Peter Binzen On Business. Hank Klibanoff, who as business editor was Mr. Binzen’s boss, described him as ‘a great and decent man, and a superb newsman.'”

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