The Boston Business Journal doesn't "get it"

8/31/99 In an article entitled Industry bogged down: growers concerned about being buried under cranberries from the Boston Business Journal (8/30/99), once again the media missed the story behind the story. Focusing on the surplus the article merely mentions management changes at Ocean Spray ("A few top executives left the company this year, and its chief executive officer announced in June that he would step down next year, amid financial and market problems.") as if it is business as usual for a CEO to accept early retirement at the age of 53, after just three years on the job, in the midst of an industry crisis. The reporting about mismanagement at Ocean Spray was available to the Boston Business Journal on this web site, and there were credible people more than willing to discuss the situation candidly. The Boston Globe even reported on June 18, 1999:

But some analysts said the company under Bullock's leadership has suffered for strategic reasons that have nothing to do with the cranberry glut. They say the company never recovered from losing its monopoly in the 1990s amid competition from companies like Northland Cranberries of Wisconsin and Tropicana. "They didn't know how to deal with competition," George S. Dahlman, an industry analyst, told The Boston Globe.When Northland began marketing a premium line of 100% cranberry juice, Ocean Spray started a price war that hurt it more than Northland, Dahlman said.

The only opinion reported in the article critical of Ocean Spray is that they may have caused more problems by encouraging production increases or using Canadian berries.

With the lack of true investigative business reporting no wonder more and more people are relying on the Internet for a counter-point to the information they get in the traditional media.(See yellow box left.) One would hope that the owners of Ocean Spray who will ultimately decide its fate, and the large corporations interested in owning "The Wave", realize that Industry bogged down: growers concerned about being buried under cranberries amounts to nothing more than a puff piece that passes for journalism. It could easily have been published in the Ocean Spray Scoop.

Those "in the know" realize that with smart strategic leadership and the capital to expand into global markets, a multibillion dollar corporation will be able to bring in a management team and, in short order, set the cranberry industry back on course. If Triarc could undo the damage management did to Snapple when it was owned by Quaker, think what a large multinational could do for Ocean Spray.

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