Best Cybersecurity Newsletters to Advertise In: 10 Compared by Reader (2026)

Security vendors can reach CISOs through SANS NewsBites or Cyberpresso, practitioners through TLDR InfoSec or SANS @RISK, and AppSec and cloud engineers through tl;dr sec or CloudSecList. Every audience figure below is the publisher's own, checked on 2026-11-04 and not audited by us.

Quick answer

• For CISOs and security leaders, SANS NewsBites states 387,000 subscribers, and Decryption Digest states 50,000 subscribers, 68% of them with Senior, Director, VP or C-suite titles.
• For hands-on practitioners, TLDR InfoSec states 410k subscribers and a 43% open rate, and SANS @RISK states 260,000 subscribers.
• For AppSec and cloud engineers, tl;dr sec states more than 120,000 subscribers (its footer says more than 90,000), and CloudSecList 12,000+ on cloud security alone.
• Only two publishers say a dedicated send is sold: Cyberpresso, and Decryption Digest inside an article package.
• Dark Reading, N2K CyberWire and Risky Business publish no newsletter subscriber count.

Dupple publishes Techpresso, AIpresso, Devshot, Cyberpresso, Finpresso and MarketingShot, and sells sponsorships in them. Cyberpresso sits in this list under the same inclusion rule, ordering rule and source standard (its own sponsor page) as every other newsletter.

Dupple data: of the 10 newsletters we read for this page on 2026-11-04, 7 state a subscriber count for the newsletter itself, 5 state an open rate, 1 gives a seniority share for the newsletter itself (Decryption Digest, 68%; TLDR's 22% VP-level share covers all 14 TLDR newsletters), and 2 say a dedicated send is sold (Cyberpresso, and Decryption Digest inside its article package).

Which cybersecurity newsletters reach CISOs and security leaders?

Six newsletters address leaders and decision-makers. Three state a newsletter subscriber count.

SANS NewsBites: semiweekly executive briefing for security leaders

SANS states on its newsletter sponsorship page that NewsBites has 387,000 subscribers and 15,000 to 50,000+ monthly archive views, and calls it a semiweekly, executive-level briefing. It sells an upper and a lower placement. The page gives no open rate, so the count measures list size, not attention.

Pros

• A stated list of 387,000 subscribers.
• Two placements with stated limits, the upper one with a logo.

Cons

• No open rate or click data on the page.
• Archive views are a wide range, 15,000 to 50,000+ a month, with no explanation.

Decryption Digest: daily digest aimed at senior security buyers

Decryption Digest says on its sponsor page that it has 50,000 verified subscribers and a 47% open rate, that 68% of readers hold Senior, Director, VP or C-suite titles and that 71% are involved in security purchasing decisions. It sells four packages, from a sponsored section in the daily digest (The Brief) to category exclusivity (The Partner), and puts its dedicated email inside The Deep Dive article package.

Pros

• Role shares stated for the newsletter itself: 68% Senior or above, 71% in purchasing.
• One sponsor per category per issue, with a proof before sending.

Cons

• The dedicated email is listed only inside The Deep Dive article package, which the page says it does not split.
• The page does not say how role shares were measured, and its "23,500 engaged readers per issue" is the open rate applied to the list.

Cyberpresso: Dupple's daily newsletter for CISOs and SOC teams

Dupple publishes Cyberpresso, a daily newsletter on cybersecurity and threat intelligence. Its advertise page states 28,000+ subscribers and a 31% average open rate as of November 1, 2026, from our email platform. It sells Primary Ads and Dedicated Sends in four packages with no minimum budget; rates are in the media kit.

Pros

• A maximum of 3 sponsors per issue.
• Reports list opens, clicks, CTR and the corporate domains that engaged.

Cons

• Primary Ads and Dedicated Sends book out weeks to months ahead, per the page.
• The stated list is smaller than the two newsletters above it in this group.

Dark Reading: a security website with an eNewsletter product

Informa TechTarget's Dark Reading prints website figures on its advertise page: 510k unique visitors and 850k page views per month, and a 47% engagement rate. It lists eNewsletters among its ad products, next to banners, native advertising and webinars, with no subscriber count, open rate or newsletter format.

Pros

• Lists eNewsletters next to native advertising and a sponsored article.
• Website traffic is stated: 510k unique visitors per month.

Cons

• No newsletter subscriber count or open rate; "engagement rate" is a website metric and is not defined.
• Specifications sit in a downloadable media kit, not on the page.

N2K CyberWire: daily briefings and podcasts for security executives

N2K CyberWire states on its sponsor page a global audience of 1.8M people who tune into its daily and weekly podcasts and briefings, and calls itself the industry's largest B2B audio network. That combined audio and briefing audience cannot be set against a subscriber count.

Pros

• A stated combined audience of 1.8M across podcasts and briefings.
• Newsletter briefings are named (Daily Briefing, Week that Was, Caveat) and aimed at security executives.

Cons

• No newsletter subscriber count or open rate; audio and email are not separated.
• No ad unit, length or position on the page.

Risky Business: security news and policy newsletters with a podcast audience

Risky Business Media says on its sponsorship page that Risky.Biz reaches a weekly audience of more than 25,000 information security professionals, a "top heavy" mix of CISOs and security decision-makers, 50% of them in the USA. Its about page says it publishes two newsletters, Risky Bulletin and Seriously Risky Business, and two podcast feeds. The sponsorship page does not say which products a sponsor buys.

Pros

• A stated weekly audience of more than 25,000 security professionals, 50% in the USA.
• Readers described by role: CISOs and security decision-makers.

Cons

• The 25,000 figure covers Risky.Biz as a whole, not the newsletters alone.
• No format list, open rate or dedicated send on the page.

Which cybersecurity newsletters reach security practitioners and engineers?

Two newsletters describe hands-on readers, and both state a subscriber count. TLDR calls its InfoSec readers security professionals, so it sits here.

TLDR InfoSec: news, research and tools for security professionals

TLDR lists TLDR InfoSec at 410k subscribers and a 43% open rate, described as "news, research, and tools for information security professionals" on its advertise page. It sells three native text placements, caps every issue at 3 advertisers and includes copywriting and reporting. Its only reader breakdown covers all of TLDR: 22% at VP level or above.

Pros

• Subscriber count and open rate are both stated for the InfoSec list itself.
• Placement limits are stated, with a cap of 3 advertisers per issue.

Cons

• No InfoSec-specific reader breakdown; the 22% VP-level share covers all of TLDR.
• No dedicated send is stated, and rates come from a custom proposal.

SANS @RISK: weekly technical digest for engineers and SOC teams

SANS describes @RISK as a weekly technical digest on active threats, new vulnerabilities and exploit analysis, "ideal for reaching security engineers, SOC teams, and vulnerability management professionals", and states 260,000 subscribers on its sponsorship page. It sells an upper and a lower placement.

Pros

• A stated list of 260,000 subscribers.
• Readers are named by role, down to vulnerability management.

Cons

• No open rate on the page.
• The upper placement lists no logo option, and no dedicated send is stated.

Which newsletters reach AppSec and cloud security engineers?

tl;dr sec names application security and cloud security roles within a wider range and sits here for that reason. CloudSecList covers cloud security only.

tl;dr sec: research and tools digest for security engineers

tl;dr sec says on its sponsor page that it has more than 120,000 subscribers and email open rates of about 40%, and that about 5% of readers click at least one link per issue. Its footer says it has more than 90,000 security professionals, so its own pages disagree; the order here is the same under either figure. Sponsorship is bought one issue at a time. The page says sponsor links receive 60 to 100 clicks on the lower end, many between 100 and 200, and the best between 500 and 750.

Pros

• Unique opens, unique clicks and social impressions are reported about a week after the issue.
• Sponsor click ranges are stated by the publisher.

Cons

• Two subscriber figures on its own site: more than 120,000 and more than 90,000.
• Terms allow a competitor's new tool or a critical article in the sponsored issue.

CloudSecList: weekly cloud security digest

CloudSecList states on its sponsor page that it is read by 12,000+ engineers, architects, CISOs, founders and investors, with an open rate of about 50% and 21,000+ monthly website visitors. It covers cloud security only and is typically sent on Sundays. Each issue has two slots in the same format, a 400 to 600 character blurb that also appears in the post on its site.

Pros

• Cloud security is the only topic, so every subscriber chose one subject, per the page.
• Open rate, slot format and a slot calendar are on the page.

Cons

• The smallest stated newsletter list of the ten; the slot calendar shows 2026 sold out and only 2027 issues available.
• A click-through rate of about 40% with no stated base, and an intro line that still reads "All 2025 slots are sold out".

Does list size matter when you sponsor a security newsletter?

Not as much as headline counts suggest, at least on our own lists. Dupple benchmark: on one email platform (Beehiiv API, read 2026-11-01), Cyberpresso converts 4.2% of opens into clicks against 2.7% for Techpresso, a list many times larger (engagement benchmarks). It compares two Dupple lists only, not the other nine.

Click data cannot be lined up: tl;dr sec gives counts per sponsor link, Decryption Digest a 9.2% average click-through rate, and CloudSecList about 40% with no stated base.

Among the 28,402 Technology-industry new subscribers who answered our post-signup quiz between 2026-08-05 and 2026-11-03, 30.2% are decision-makers (Founder, C-suite or Director/VP) and 37.6% work at companies of 51 or more employees (audience data). That covers all Dupple newsletters, not Cyberpresso alone, and the quiz does not isolate security roles.

What should a security vendor ask a publisher before booking?

Four questions separate a usable figure from an unusable one.

1. What does the number count: subscribers, readers, website visitors, listeners or a network total?
2. How does the platform count opens, and is the role share measured or estimated?
3. Is a dedicated email included, or only a slot in an issue?
4. What does the report contain, and when does it arrive?

Measurement is covered in how to measure newsletter sponsorship ROI, marketplace buying in newsletter ad marketplaces compared, and Dupple's approach to security buyers on the cybersecurity advertising overview. For developer or general tech readers, see best developer newsletters to advertise in and best tech newsletters to advertise in.

Named by AI assistants, with no newsletter sponsor page we could read on 2026-11-04

Below is what we found for each outlet, not what it sells.

• The Hacker News: its advertising page loaded without an offer we could read, and its counts are labelled followers or subscribers with no platform named, so we give no figure.
• The Record from Recorded Future News: its about page says it is owned by Recorded Future, is editorially independent and has a free weekly newsletter and a Cyber Daily digest. We found no advertise page.
• CyberScoop: its about page states more than 7.8M monthly unique engagements, not a newsletter count. Its Advertise link goes to the Scoop News Group solutions page, which lists newsletter advertising with a group-wide figure for its government-tech newsletters and none for CyberScoop.
• CISO Series: its sponsor page lists podcast and show sponsorships in its menu and does not describe a newsletter offer.

How we picked and ordered this list

• Where the names came from: security newsletters and media that AI assistants named for the buyer question "best cybersecurity newsletters to sponsor for a security vendor", plus Cyberpresso, which Dupple publishes.
• Inclusion rule: a security newsletter, or security media that publishes a newsletter or email briefing, whose own site has a sponsor or advertise page we could read on 2026-11-04.
• Groups: each newsletter sits in the group its publisher's own page describes; where a page names several, it sits where the page puts the weight.
• Ordering rule: inside each group, by the subscriber figure the publisher states for that newsletter, largest first. Website visitors, podcast listeners, "weekly audience" figures and combined network audiences do not count as subscribers. Newsletters with no such figure come last, in alphabetical order.
• Figures: as stated by each publisher, read 2026-11-04, not audited by us. Dupple does not test or buy these sponsorships. We re-read every quarter. See the editorial policy.

What we could not verify

• Competitor figures are self-reported by each publisher. Our subscriber figures come from Beehiiv and our quiz figures from self-reported post-signup answers; no third party audits either.
• Open rates are not comparable across platforms: each counts opens differently, and Apple Mail privacy protection inflates them.
• tl;dr sec prints two subscriber figures, and CloudSecList's page contradicts itself on booking status; we cannot say which is current.
• Decryption Digest does not say how its role shares were measured, and a campaign example on its page mentions dedicated email opens under The Full Send, whose package list names none. CloudSecList's click-through rate has no stated base.
• Risky Business, N2K CyberWire and Dark Reading publish no newsletter subscriber count; their figures count other things.
• SANS says its newsletters overall reach over 700,000 professionals but itemises only NewsBites and @RISK.
• We read sponsor pages, not the media kits of Dark Reading, Risky Business or Dupple.
• The CISO Series sponsor page footer is dated 2024. CyberScoop's Advertise link leads to its parent company's page, which gives no CyberScoop newsletter figure, and we found no advertise page for The Record.

FAQ

Sources

All publisher pages were read on 2026-11-04.

• SANS: Advertise in SANS Newsletters: NewsBites and @RISK figures, placements.
• TLDR: Advertise: TLDR InfoSec figures, placements.
• tl;dr sec: Sponsor: subscribers, open rate, slots, footer.
• Decryption Digest: Sponsor: subscribers, role shares, packages.
• Risky Business Media: Sponsorship and Risky Business News: About: weekly audience, reader mix, newsletters.
• CloudSecList: Sponsor: subscribers, open rate, slots.
• N2K CyberWire: Sponsor: combined audience, briefings.
• Dark Reading: Advertise: website figures, ad products.
• The Record: About: ownership, newsletters.
• CyberScoop: About: audience statement; Scoop News Group: Our solutions: where its Advertise link leads.
• CISO Series: Sponsors: sponsorship menu.
• Dupple: Advertise in Cyberpresso, read 2026-11-04
• Dupple: Audience and lead data, quiz window 2026-08-05 to 2026-11-03
• Dupple: Newsletter engagement benchmarks, Beehiiv API read 2026-11-01