A Plea for Better Press Releases – ESW #246

A big part of preparing for Security Weekly news segments is reading press releases. Most of us also get emails whenever a cybersecurity vendor sends out a press release. Too many are frivolous, full of hyperbole, or just plain unreadable. We talk about why so many press releases are like this (there are legit reasons!) and how they could be improved.

What's wrong with press releases? 1. Frivolous Press Releases 2. Unintelligible Press Releases 3. Bending the Truth 4. Excessive hyperbole; death by adjective 5. FUD

Why are they like this? 1. Feeding the SEO beast 2. Written by committee 3. Need to appear successful 4. Need to show growth/progress 5. Need to differentiate from the competition 6. "if it bleeds it leads"

Fixing Press Releases - When should you put out a press release? - What should go into a press release? - How should you write a press release?