Judging by the the first individual in the press release, Michael Gillon of the University of Liege, this may have something to do with their discovery published last year in Nature [1] on terrestrial planets with moderate surface temperatures ("temperate") around low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. All very nearby at less than 12 parsecs to boot! This article was on the front page of HN last year, and was discussed qui…
This better be something better than 'we got slightly bette at identifying planets like our own.' It's great that we're doing so but when they are teasing discoveries rather than simply announcing them it should be for some signficant qualitative difference from anything we've known before.
NASA wants to keep people interested and excited about their mission of course. But press conferences like these are also to stir up interest in the greater scientific community. Announcements like these might be disappointing to us lay persons who are waiting for the "we found life!" headline, but they can generate huge excitement in astronomy circles.