Information Strategies Case Study Evaluation: Cracking the Code of Silence Behind the Schwan's Salmonella Outbreak

More than a decade ago, Minneapolis Star Tribune business reporter Tony Kennedy went where no one had gone before: behind the formidable walls of secrecy surrounding a private food company called Schwan's, headquartered in Marshall, MN (Hansen and Paul, 2004). Blamed for a salmonella outbreak caused by improper sanitation of its food delivery trucks, Schwan's entered the media spotlight after having successfully maintained a code of silence few reporters had been able to break since the company's small-town beginnings. Through Kennedy's meticulous attention to information strategies, his article presented a profile of the company that had never before entered the public view. The strength of Kennedy's work lay in the elements of credibility, accuracy, timeliness, authority and reputation among his information sources.

In the area of credibility, Kennedy was able to locate Schwan's News pieces and prior news articles about the company that served as possibly his most reliable sources of information. As Hansen and Paul (2004) note, the Schwan's News items were created as internal communications within a highly privatized company. Because they were intended for employees' eyes only, these items disclosed candid, inner workings of a company that maintained a low profile in the public view. In addition, prior news articles about Schwan's served to shape the limited, public window into the company's operations by focusing on then-current events and figures which influenced the company's growth. These news articles, containing information that was previously vetted and prepared by journalism professionals, delivered a chronology of notable company happenings and provided Kennedy with a solid background in what little information the company did reveal to the public.