A dead man's switch is not necessarily based on a timeout when your internet connection is not guaranteed. If the leak is nuclear level - e.g irrefutable proof

A dead man's switch is not necessarily based on a timeout when your internet connection is not guaranteed. If the leak is nuclear level - e.g irrefutable proof that the ruling class ARE reptilians - you want to keep that unreleased for as long as you can. I can imagine a bot somewhere scanning top 10 international newspapers daily and looking for the words 'Assange' and 'dead' before the countdown begins.