ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅ

When your company's earnings news hits the market, stock prices can react in milliseconds. A 2025 UC San Diego study analyzing over 89 billion stock quotes found that after-hours earnings announcements cause, sometimes before a press release even finishes crossing the wire.

In today's high-speed environment, alignment between your press release and corresponding SEDAR+ or EDGAR filing is more than a best practice. It's a strategic imperative.

Press releases may precede formal regulatory filings by minutes, hours, or even a couple of days, especially for complex items like XBRL. Regardless of this necessary preparation time, a clear, compliant, and strategically sequenced approach is crucial to safeguard market confidence, ensure regulatory adherence, and uphold investor trust.

With SEDAR+ now fully implemented and EDGAR Next on the horizon, this article outlines five advanced practices for coordinated disclosure, a practical checklist, and recent research insights to help your team communicate effectively and avoid unnecessary gaps.

Table of Contents

1. Why Timing Matters
2. How Market Response Reinforces the Need for Coordination
3. When Coordination Slips
4. Why Misalignments Still Happen: The Internal Coordination Imperative
5. Five Steps to Mastering Coordinated Disclosure
6. Disclosure Timing Checklist
7. TMX Newsfile: Your Integrated Solution

Why Press Release and Filing Alignment Matters

Regulators and investors aren't just watching what you disclose, but how and when you do it.

The UC San Diego study highlights how fast markets respond to initial announcements, often in milliseconds. While your official regulatory filings may follow the initial press release due to necessary preparation, the market has already begun to react.

Therefore, ensuring the eventual filings are timely according to regulations, and perfectly consistent with the information already disseminated, is crucial to avoid subsequent market confusion, maintain credibility, and prevent any perception of selective or incomplete initial disclosure.

In Canada, National Policy 51-201 requires. In the U.S., mandates that all investors receive material information at the same time. Often, this broad public dissemination under Reg FD is achieved through a comprehensive press release, which is then submitted to the SEC on Form 8-K.

These frameworks highlight the importance of having a clear and compliant sequence for every part of your disclosure process.

How Market Response Reinforces the Need for Coordination

While official SEDAR+ and EDGAR filings might follow an initial press release due to preparation needs, meticulous coordination with that first market-moving announcement is vital. Research highlights several reasons why:

• Immediate Market Impact: The UC San Diego study reveals that and notes that this news can also affect prices of similar companies and occasionally the overall market index. This highlights how quickly markets absorb earnings news. Therefore, filings that follow a news release should provide consistent details and additional context to help prevent confusion or misinterpretation.
• Press Releases as Media Catalysts: A 2020 British Accounting Review study showed that and trading volumes on the day of and after release. Alignment with filings ensures consistency across what investors read and what regulators receive.

Ultimately, these studies highlight a key reality: markets react swiftly and significantly to initial disclosures like press releases.

Therefore, to maintain market confidence, subsequent regulatory filings must be diligently prepared to be timely, accurate, and entirely consistent with those initial announcements.

When Coordination Slips

Even well-prepared teams can experience timing issues, especially when filings require more time:

• Press release goes out, but MD&A or 8-K follows hours later
• Filings delayed due to complex formatting (e.g., XBRL) or payment
• Content mismatches between news release and regulatory documents

These situations typically stem from internal disconnects—not intent. The key is to manage the disclosure process strategically to minimize unnecessary or non-compliant gaps and ensure content alignment from the start.

Why Misalignments Still Happen: The Internal Coordination Imperative

While many public companies maintain strong disclosure processes, alignment between press releases and regulatory filings can still be challenging. Gaps in coordination may result from logistical, procedural, or resource-related complexities:

• Siloed teams: Legal may own filings, while IR or communications manages the press release. Without a truly integrated workflow and shared accountability from the start, critical handoffs can be missed.
• Unlinked review processes: When the filing and press release are finalized separately, important edits may not carry over between the two. This can lead to inconsistencies in messaging and create confusion for investors.
• Missing disclosure protocol: Without a centralized calendar, clear responsibilities for each step, and a comprehensive checklist for each disclosure type, critical timing or messaging steps may be overlooked, risking non-compliance with NP 51-201 or Reg FD.
• Jurisdictional complexity: Dual-listed issuers must reconcile different filing deadlines and standards, a challenge amplified with evolving systems like EDGAR Next.
• Lack of awareness of platform efficiencies: Many issuers are unaware that quarterly and annual filing documents can be submitted in advance with scheduling instructions to align more closely with press release timing. While manual review means exact coordination can't be guaranteed, advance submissions improve alignment odds.
• Operational bottlenecks: Submission methods can significantly affect processing times. Secure portal uploads are generally faster than email, especially when multi-factor authentication is used. The press release usually comes first, but filings that involve XBRL or complex financials may take longer to prepare, so careful planning is needed to stay compliant.
• Funding requirements: For filings involving annual financial statements, delays can occur if payment is not received in advance. Different payment methods have varying processing times, so proactive payment planning is essential.

Operation teams often see filings submitted concurrently with releases or shortly after. While timing varies, deliberate coordination helps prevent unnecessary delays.

Five Steps to Mastering Coordinated Disclosure

For public companies, getting disclosure timing right is critical. These five steps will help your team stay coordinated, meet all regulatory requirements, and deliver consistent, credible communication to the market.

Step 1: Establish a Cross-Functional Disclosure Coordination Framework

For every material disclosure, activate a dedicated task force that includes IR, Legal, Finance, Communications, and relevant C-suite members.

Treat the regulatory filing and press release as a single, strategic communication event—not separate deliverables. Use a shared disclosure calendar with defined milestones and ownership. Ensure all teams align on messaging, data, and objectives before drafting begins to avoid inconsistencies and last-minute issues.

Step 2: Implement Joint Review Processes to Ensure Consistent, Accurate Content from a Single Source

Establish a structured, cross-functional review and sign-off process where the regulatory filing and accompanying press release are reviewed together by IR, Legal, Finance, and Communications.

Ensure both documents are developed using a single, authoritative source of truth for all key data and messaging. Financial figures, strategic positioning, forward-looking statements (with proper safe harbor language), and non-GAAP reconciliations must be fully aligned or explicitly cross-referenced across both formats.

Following industry-recognized disclosure standards supports clarity, transparency, and trust with investors and regulators.

Step 3: Implement a Precise, Compliant, and Operationally Sound Launch Protocol

A meticulously documented launch protocol is essential for aligning all moving parts of your disclosure. This plan must integrate regulatory mandates with operational best practices. Key elements include:

• Documented Timing for All Stages: Clearly map out the planned timing for each critical step: internal multi-stakeholder approvals, final content lock-off, technical preparation of all documents (including any XBRL components), and the strategically sequenced press release dissemination and subsequent SEDAR+ and EDGAR filings.
• Strict Regulatory Adherence: The sequence must ensure full compliance with rules like Reg FD (requiring the Form 8-K with earnings release to be submitted by the start of an earnings call) and NP 51-201 (which mandates the 'immediate' news release for material changes, with the formal Material Change Report following within 10 days).
• Optimized Submission Methods: Utilize the fastest and most secure methods for newswire submission; ideally, this means using a secure provider portal with multi-factor authentication (MFA) for enhanced speed and reliability, as this is often processed more quickly than emailed submissions.
• Advance Scheduling & Coordination: Where systems allow, submit regulatory filings in advance with clear scheduling instructions to align closely with your confirmed press release timing.
• Managing Preparation Realities: Your plan must realistically account for the preparation time needed for formal filings after an initial press release has been crafted (especially for complex documents or those requiring XBRL), while always aiming to minimize undue delays and maintain market integrity.
• Contingency and Operational Readiness:
  • Build in time buffers for each stage to accommodate unforeseen issues.
  • Ensure filing fees are arranged and confirmed well in advance, considering payment processing times.
  • Outline clear backup steps and internal/external communication plans for handling any system delays, technical problems, or last-minute material changes.

Step 4: Use an Integrated Disclosure Platform for Accuracy, Efficiency, and Control

Once internal alignment is achieved, leveraging a single, modern platform for both regulatory filings and press release distribution is essential. It reduces hand-offs, mitigates the risk of version errors or outdated content, ensures a clear audit trail, and enables more precise execution.

This approach also strengthens internal disclosure controls, which are key expectations under both U.S. frameworks like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Canadian guidance such as National Policy 51-201.

Step 5: Conduct Post-Disclosure Reviews and Continuously Optimize

After each major disclosure event (e.g., earnings, M&A, AGM), reconvene the disclosure team to evaluate performance. Focus on:

• Timing and coordination: What ran smoothly? Were there any delays or last-minute content pressures?
• Content accuracy and alignment: Were the filing and press release fully consistent?
• Market and media reaction: What was the immediate response? Leverage web traffic, media coverage, and analyst commentary.
• Process efficiency: How well did internal communication, approval workflows, and submission methods (e.g., portal uploads, advance scheduling) function?

Then, document all learnings and update your internal disclosure protocols and checklists accordingly. Offer refresher training to everyone involved to reinforce best practices. A culture of continuous improvement sets leading IR and governance teams apart.

Coordinated Disclosure Timing Checklist

Use this checklist to support clear coordination across your disclosure process, including timing, content, approvals, and execution.

(Source note: This checklist is for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Always consult with internal and external legal counsel for your specific disclosure circumstances.)

TMX Newsfile: Your Trusted Partner in Market Disclosure

At TMX Newsfile, we support over 2,500 clients in delivering timely, compliant disclosures. Our integrated platform includes press release distribution, SEDAR+, EDGAR, and XBRL services, backed by deep regulatory expertise and 24/7 support. We help capital markets teams simplify their workflow, reduce risk, and communicate with confidence.

Let's talk about your next earnings release or disclosure event.