Kelly Jackson Higgins on the Evolution of Informa TechTarget’s Cyber Portfolio

In December 2024, Informa Tech, the company behind Dark Reading, merged with TechTarget, which brought together TechTarget's technology websites and Industry Dives. Now, almost a year post-merger, Dark Reading, SearchSecurity, and Cybersecurity Dive are thriving under Kelly Jackson Higgins’ leadership at the new Informa TechTarget company.

Kelly and I caught up to discuss the unique differences among all three brands, the evolution of the cybersecurity space since Dark Reading was founded almost 20 years ago, and parts of the outlet you may not have known existed.

The full transcript of the conversation can be found below, but if you only have time for a quick scan, check out our “Dialed-in Snapshot” for the points you can’t miss!

Dialed-In Snapshot

• Dark Reading's 20th Birthday Celebration: Dark Reading is turning 20 next year, and they're planning special coverage and other surprises to mark the milestone.

• Pitching Guide:

• Dark Reading: Aims to be the first stop for security practitioners — from the SOC to the CISO — to discover what's happening in their industry, what it means to their roles, and what they need to know in their daily jobs.
• Cybersecurity Dive: Focuses on equipping C-level decision-makers with the "news of the day" to keep them informed and prepared for discussions and decisions.
• SearchSecurity: Provides "day-three analysis," offering deep technical guidance and tutorials on new and existing technologies to inform decision-makers.
• Cybersecurity Awareness Month: This year, the three media brands will create a special compilation that packages together work from all three brands with content around security training and awareness issues.
• Dark Reading CISO Advisory Board: This board helps Dark Reading hear directly from security leaders across multiple vertical markets. They meet quarterly, and the members inspired Dark Reading’s creation of "CISO Corner" for curated, high-priority stories. They're always looking for new members from enterprises (not security vendors).
• Dark Reading Contributed Content is Changing: Jim Donahue retired (and he's missed!). Senior Editor Becky Bracken is now leading this section and shifting it to an Op-Ed model. Expect fewer, but higher-quality and more strategic opinion pieces, especially from CISOs and practitioners.
• AI's Impact on SOCs: AI isn't going anywhere. Kelly wants to hear how it's actually helping SOCs with things like surfacing alerts, triaging threats, reducing analyst fatigue, and streamlining response. They're looking for practical, proven stories, not just product announcements.

The Informa Tech/TechTarget merger was announced almost a year ago now. What are some of the most noticeable changes that have taken place? Less noticeable?

Our new company is Informa TechTarget, blending three media businesses: Informa Tech, which is where Dark Reading resided; TechTarget, which was the home of SearchSecurity; and Industry Dive, which was part of Informa Tech and the home to Cybersecurity Dive.

Our group, the Cybersecurity Media Group, was one of the first in Informa TechTarget to organize around a market or industry. Other groups have come together more in the last few months, including the EIT side. But we've been together since January.

What struck me first about the three cybersecurity media brands is that we are really different, even though we’re in the same industry. In some ways, we're targeting the same readers, but we really do that in very different ways.

Stepping back, first, so the readers of this know my new role. I am now the VP of the Cybersecurity Media Group, which includes Dark Reading, SearchSecurity, and Cybersecurity Dive. I am also still the editor-in-chief at Dark Reading and now Cybersecurity Dive. I have been working closely with all three brands, so I can explain how they differ and complement one another.

Dark Reading has been around since 2006. Next year will be our 20th anniversary.

Is there a 20th anniversary party coming? 

We are actually working on our plans now. We held a big celebration for our tenth anniversary. Back then, we did a package of special coverage, and we plan to create something similar again. More to come — I can’t give it all away.

When Dark Reading began 20 years ago, there were not many cybersecurity publications out there. The industry was still in its infancy. Our original goal — which has not changed even after all these years — is to serve as a major media site for cybersecurity practitioners at all levels. Because at that point, the CISO role was extremely rare, and there were few security vendors. Today, there are 3,000 or so vendors, or close to that.

Dark Reading’s original strategy was to be the first stop for security practitioners to uncover what is happening in their industry and what they need to know to do their jobs every day. That has not changed. We cover news, but we look beyond the face value of the news and dig into what the news event or trend means for security professionals and what they can or should do about a new threat or issue.

We have some of the most experienced and renowned cybersecurity reporters who have been covering this industry for a long time. We know the industry really well. Our reporters possess the sources, the context, and the technical knowledge to write those kinds of stories.

Beyond news, how else can we work with the Dark Reading team?

We have two big sections in addition to our news. We have the Edge feature section, which was originally our concept of the old Sunday newspaper magazine, and is headed by Fahmida Rashid.

We also have Dark Reading Technology, also led by Fahmida. That is a space for us to dig into “game-changing” technology trends and unique product announcements.

What differentiates you from one another?

I’ll start with Cybersecurity Dive. It’s a two-person operation: Eric Geller and David Jones, who are excellent journalists. They are classic investigative reporters; that is their thing, and they have that nose for news. The Dive approach is newsletter-forward, targeting the C-level. The goal is to equip those C-level decision-makers with the news of the day so they are prepared to respond and build their strategies accordingly.

SearchSecurity is known for its deep technical guidance and tutorials. They understand, better than anyone, new and existing technologies and how they work. Sharon Shea is the Executive Editor of SearchSecurity. They are after “third day analysis,” a term coined by Sharon. For example, related to the SolarWinds attack, they published stories about preventing supply chain attacks and lessons learned from SolarWinds.

We provide the full gamut of security content for the industry, so we complement one another really well.

What changes might a day-to-day reader notice?

They probably don’t see much difference from the outside, but they might notice that we are being more strategic with our coverage or more selective.

What do you mean by strategic?

So our three brands meet together weekly. We work closely together, ensuring we know who is doing what, so we do not duplicate efforts. If we are covering the same topic or news, it will look completely different on each site. We complement each other, and each of us creates content in its own unique way, providing what I like to call a full, 360-degree view of an issue.

We also link to one another’s stories on our sites and highlight each other’s work in our individual newsletters.

What other ways do you work as a team?

The Cyber Media Team meets weekly as a group. We have our own chat on Teams together. We are also still settling into a new way of working. I think everyone is really embracing it, which is admirable, because change is so hard.

The first time we met, I confess I was nervous about how to bring the three groups together, who were all affected in different ways by this merger. Everyone was feeling the challenges of change. But right away, there was chemistry. We have a group of people who like and respect each other, and it’s showing up in the form of creative ways we work together and support one another. We now have a weekly movie trivia contest, and it has been fun for us to be able to joke around with one another and enjoy our work.

You know how Cyber Security Awareness Month sometimes gets mocked by industry insiders? We are all like, “Oh gosh, what are we gonna write about this year?” None of us writes for consumers. That was one of those moments where we all rallied together and came up with an idea for the group package.

I have my feelings about Cybersecurity Awareness Month, but I could not imagine how you and your team feel. You are fielding the pitches.

What I think is important about it is that, and something we have published in the past, exploring the perspective of why attacks are still so easy even in the age of cyber awareness training, so how are companies training their employees, given that ongoing challenge? The latter is what we want to lean into this year.

What team changes have taken place as a result of the merger?

One of the biggest strengths of our Dark Reading team is our depth. Dark Reading’s “superpower” has always been the deep-dive, investigative content that no one else produces. At the time of the merger, Dark Reading was short-staffed, and Informa TechTarget’s management was looking to ensure the three cyber brands were unique. The executive team decided to bring three writers, Arielle Waldman, Rob Wright, and Alex Culafi, from TechTarget to fill those gaps, and they have been great fits.

Arielle Waldman had a strong interest in writing features, so she moved over to work with Fahmida in our features section. She is doing exceptional work. Rob Wright supports Tara Seals on the news operation side, which is incredibly fast-paced. We publish around seven or more stories a day, so Rob has become Tara’s “right hand,” doing reporting and helping with daily editorial flow. Alex Culafi is writing excellent news analysis stories. We wanted to ensure our staff writers had the bandwidth to produce more in-depth news analysis, which we are known for, so this team expansion really helped.

Can you share more about the Dark Reading CISO Advisory Board and how to get involved?

This is a concept we had envisioned for years, but only launched in 2023 once we had the resources. The goal of the CISO Advisory Board was to ensure we are hearing from the security leaders we serve. We did not want to assume we know what CISOs need; we want to ask them. CISOs on the board serve 18-month terms, and surprisingly, almost everyone in our first cohort came back for a second term when their first term ended. And, I’m excited to say we are bringing in new members.

Today, the CISO Advisory Board is composed of CISOs from a range of company sizes and sectors, including Reddit and Con Edison, in addition to university and city government. Diversity of perspective was key from the start. We meet quarterly via Teams to share what we are working on and ask for candid feedback: What is helpful? What is missing? What do you not want to read about? One concrete outcome from those meetings was our CISO Corner. A member of the board shared they were too busy to dig through content and wanted a dedicated space with curated, high-priority stories. So we created a manually curated homepage section for them.

Beyond advising us, the board members have also participated in our podcast, virtual events, and live panels at Black Hat, giving them a voice and fostering peer-to-peer networking. And for us, it has helped us get out of our bubbles and hear from those on the front lines. That has been a huge asset to our reporting.

What are some other ways that Dark Reading has evolved to expand readership?

Historically, our platform was not set up well for video, but that has changed. We now have the tools to make video a bigger part of our content strategy.

Under the leadership of Tara Seals, our managing editor for news, Dark Reading is expanding its content strategy beyond traditional text by incorporating more video content. This includes:

• Video Sidebars in Articles: Short video clips embedded within articles.
• Video Explainers: Dedicated videos to explain complex topics.
• Social-First Video Snippets: Short, engaging videos designed for social media platforms.
• Reporters' Notebooks: Videos featuring reporters discussing their insights (e.g., Arielle Waldman and Eric Geller on IoT Security).
• Writer Camera Embeds: Journalist intros and insights into their stories.
• CISO-Focused Video Pieces: Video interviews with CISOs run by Dark Reading’s Kristina Beek.
• Highlighting Dark Reading’s Editorial Webinar Content: Converting longer webinar content into shorter, digestible clips.

This shift aims to connect with readers, especially younger security professionals who prefer video and audio content over text.

There is also Dark Reading Confidential, our monthly podcast, which is a storytelling-style show that emphasizes stories and voices of security practitioners. Becky Bracken is the host and manager of Dark Reading Confidential.

What’s happening with contributed content now that Jim Donahue has retired?

Dark Reading is returning to the original vision for the section, which is more of a curated op-ed space. Becky Bracken is leading it now and brings fresh ideas on the types of OpEds we want to run. We will have fewer pieces, but aim for higher-profile contributors, including CISOs and practitioners. We’re focusing on strong opinion pieces. More to come as we finalize the structure, but the direction is clear: higher quality, more strategic voices.

Let’s close out with AI. How are you approaching AI coverage, and what’s top of mind for you going into 2026?

AI is not going anywhere. We are interested in how AI will reshape SOCs, including enhancing their ability to surface alerts, triage threats, reduce analyst fatigue, and streamline incident response. The “needle in the haystack” problem remains, and we want to report on where AI actually helps vs. what marketing teams say. Our readers prefer stories about what’s practical and proven, not just announcements of the latest AI product.