Robert B. Cohen

By the 1970s and 1980s, Cohen had grown the business into one of the largest magazine distributorships and wholesalers in the United States, focusing on the Boston and New York City metropolitan areas.

[1] Cohen owned Worldwide Media Service Inc., which is the largest newsstand distributor of American magazines outside of the United States, from 1985 until 2003.

[3] During the mid-1970s, Robert Cohen's Hudson County News Company acquired a bankrupt newsstand at Newark International Airport, which marked his entrance into the retail sector.

[2] Cohen envisioned a larger, more modern, well lit news stores to replace the tiny, dim newsstands and kiosks.

[2][4] The stores featured bright, inviting lighting and wide aisles, in contrast to other, cramped airport newsstands.

[2] In 2008, Robert Cohen sold his majority stake in Hudson News to Dufry of Switzerland, one of the largest operators of duty-free stores in the world.

[2] Robert Cohen died at the age of 86 at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, on February 1, 2012, of progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurological disorder.

[1][2][5] A memorial service was held at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey, where he and his family were longtime residents.