How to Turn Vague Press Release Claims Into Verifiable Facts

To turn a vague claim into a verifiable fact, replace the adjective with what it stands for: a number, a scope (a place and a period) and the source of the figure. "We are growing fast" becomes "revenue rose 42% in the year to March 2026, according to audited accounts". If you cannot find the fact behind a claim, cut the claim. Unsupported superlatives such as "leading" or "revolutionary" get releases flagged by editors, discounted by journalists and ignored by search engines and AI assistants, which have nothing concrete to take from them.

What makes a claim verifiable?

A verifiable claim has four parts:

1. A specific figure or fact. 4,812 visits, 14 jobs, 12 October 2026, a named product.
2. A scope. The place and period it covers: across Dubai, in 2025, in the 12 months to August 2026.
3. A basis. Where the figure comes from: company records, audited accounts, a named survey, a regulator's register.
4. Attribution. Who is making the claim. A company's own data is fine, as long as the release says it is the company's own data.

Put together, the pattern looks like this:

[Company] [did something, by how much] [where, when], according to [source].

A reader does not have to trust you to understand that sentence. They can see what you are claiming and decide how much weight to give it.

What do the rewrites look like?

Each pair below uses a fictional company, and every figure is invented for the example.

Notice what changes. The rewritten versions are longer, but every extra word carries information. None of them needs an adjective to sound credible, because the figure does that work.

How do you rewrite a claim step by step?

Take a single sentence from a fictional software company, Fieldwise, which makes scheduling software for farm contractors.

Fieldwise is the leading scheduling tool for agricultural contractors, trusted by farmers everywhere.

Work through it claim by claim.

• "Leading". Leading by what measure? Customers, revenue, market share? If Fieldwise does not have an independent source ranking it first, the word goes.
• "Agricultural contractors". This is useful. It says who the product is for. Keep it.
• "Trusted by farmers everywhere". How many? Where? The company's records show 830 contractor businesses in the UK and Ireland.

Fieldwise, a Cambridge-based software company, provides job-scheduling software to 830 agricultural contracting businesses in the UK and Ireland, according to its customer records as of September 2026.

The second version gives up a boast it could not support and gains a definition of the company, a location, a customer group, a figure, a geography, a date and a source. That is far more useful to a journalist, and it is the kind of sentence a search engine or AI assistant can connect to the right entity. Entities, not keywords explains why that connection matters.

Why do unsupported superlatives hurt?

It is tempting to think a superlative costs nothing even if it adds nothing. It does cost something.

• Editors flag it. media:on's editorial check looks for words such as leading, world-leading, revolutionary, groundbreaking, innovative, world-class, best-in-class and number one, along with empty enthusiasm such as excited, thrilled and delighted. Each one needs a basis or it comes out.
• Journalists discount the whole release. A reader who spots one claim they cannot check starts doubting the ones they could.
• Machines cannot use it. "Leading provider" does not tell a search engine or an AI assistant anything it can attach to your company. A figure with a scope and a source does.
• It may create other problems. Comparative claims such as "the cheapest" or "the fastest" can fall under advertising rules in many markets, which generally expect them to be substantiated.

When is a superlative allowed?

When it is objectively true and the release says how you know. "The first dental group in Wales to offer same-day crowns at every practice, according to the manufacturer's installation records" can stand, if the records say so. "The best dental group in Wales" cannot, because there is no record that could show it.

The test is simple: if a journalist asked "says who?", would you have an answer you could send them?

What if you do not have the numbers?

Do not invent them, and do not round a guess into a figure. Instead:

• Describe what you did, specifically. Names, places and dates are facts too. "Opened in Penarth on 2 November 2026 with six dentists" needs no statistic.
• Say less. A shorter release with three solid facts is stronger than a long one padded with claims.
• Put opinions in a quote. "We think this will cut waiting times" is a fair thing for a named director to say. The same idea stated as fact in the body presents company opinion as independent truth. Press release quotes covers how to use quotes for interpretation.
• Start collecting the data. If a claim matters to your business, record the figure that would prove it. Your own data can later become a release in its own right, as research and data press releases explains.

Frequently asked questions

Is "according to company records" enough of a source?

It is honest, and that matters. It tells the reader the figure is first-party rather than independent. For bigger claims, add detail on how the figure was counted, or publish the method on your own site and link to it.

Can I say "one of the leading" instead of "the leading"?

It has the same problem: there is no measure behind it. Replace it with the fact that made you want to say it, such as the number of customers, the years operating or the size of the team.

Next in the series is the anatomy of a modern press release, which shows where each of these facts belongs.