A company I have a lot of respect and time for recently issued a press release about a new feature it was adding to its software and hardware offer.

I read it. And then read it again. And then I started to grasp what the thing was going on about.

It was an acronym blizzard, right from the leading paragraph and all the way through – the sort of thing that a propeller-head would get quickly, but the other 99 per cent of potential readers would never grasp without a concerted effort. Most people in our industry don’t read or speak Martian, also known as IT-Speak.

When a company issues a press release, the marketing team needs to think not only about the intended audience but the filter of the trade publishers and bloggers who will read it and decide whether they will want to relay it to their readers. If it’s looking like hard work to even figure out, the editors may very well move on. I did.

The dirty technical detail is important, but down the page. In the leading paragraph, the writer wants to be conveying that “version 2.4 of this new thingdoodle will allow the screen network to operate without costly, time-consuming firewall changes” … or whatever is at the root of the story and offer.

The release doesn’t have to be dumbed-down, but if the thing starts out in Martian, the chances of many people reading and relaying the news are low. And then the point of even doing the press release is lost.

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