Why is wire distribution billed separately from the IR retainer?

Newswire services charge the issuer per release, usually metered by word count, geographic circuit, and add-ons such as multimedia. Because the cost varies release by release, most IR firms pass it through at cost or with a markup rather than absorbing it into a fixed monthly fee.

What questions should I ask an IR firm before signing a retainer?

Ask: (1) Is wire distribution included or passed through, and at what rate? (2) How many releases per month does the retainer cover, and what do overages cost? (3) Who owns the newswire account? (4) Are word-count, logo, and region fees included? (5) Is any part of the compensation tied to share price or volume — which raises regulatory concerns under TSXV Policy 3.4 and U.S. securities law.

Insights · Costs & contracts

Does an IR retainer include press releases?

Q: Does an IR retainer include press releases?

Usually only partially. Most IR retainers include drafting and editing press releases, but wire distribution is typically billed separately per release, and regulatory filing costs (SEDAR+/EDGAR) are never part of an IR retainer. Always ask which of the three cost layers — writing, wire, and filing — your quote actually covers.

Mark Solomon · Founder, FoundryIR
Published July 31, 2026

The short answer: usually only partially. Most IR retainers include writing press releases. Most bill wire distribution separately, per release. And regulatory filing costs were never part of the retainer to begin with. When an issuer feels surprised by their IR bill, it's almost always because these three separate costs were quoted as if they were one.

The three costs issuers conflate

"Press release" sounds like one product. On an invoice, it's three:

Layer	What it is	Who typically pays for it, and how
1. Writing & review	Drafting, editing, quote-building, and the compliance read that keeps promotional language out of a disclosure document.	Usually inside the retainer, often with a cap ("up to N releases/month").
2. Wire distribution	The newswire fee that actually moves the release to terminals, aggregators, and media — metered by word count, geographic circuit, and add-ons (logo, multimedia, extra regions).	Usually billed per release on top — passed through at cost or with a markup. This is the layer most often mistaken for "included."
3. Regulatory filing	Getting the news and any related documents onto SEDAR+ (Canada) or EDGAR (U.S.) via a filing agent, plus exchange fees where they apply.	Never part of an IR retainer. Billed by your filing agent / legal channel. Budget it separately.

Legacy newswire rate cards are built around meters: a base fee covering the first few hundred words for one circuit, then per-hundred-word overage charges, plus line items for a logo, a photo, or each additional region. A short domestic release can run a few hundred dollars; a full national U.S. circuit with multimedia can run well into the thousands — per release. Over a year of steady news flow, the wire layer alone can exceed the IR retainer that was supposed to "include" it.

What a micro-cap IR retainer typically covers in 2026

Scope varies widely, but for small- and micro-cap issuers a typical monthly retainer covers:

Press-release drafting and editing (often capped per month)
An IR contact point for investor inquiries
Some form of investor targeting or outreach
Quarterly materials support (fact sheet, deck updates)
Light media/market monitoring

And commonly excluded (billed separately or not offered):

Wire distribution fees (the big one — see above)
Regulatory filing and filing-agent costs
Video production, webcasts, site visits
Paid media, sponsored coverage, campaign budgets — which, if used, carry their own disclosure obligations (in Canada, TSX Venture Exchange Policy 3.4; in the U.S., Section 17(b) of the Securities Act requires paid stock promotion to disclose the compensation)
Conference fees and travel

Five questions to ask before you sign

"Is wire distribution included — and if not, what's your pass-through rate?" Ask for the actual per-release number for the circuits you'll really use, not "at cost."
"How many releases does the retainer cover, and what does release N+1 cost?" Overage pricing is where capped retainers get expensive.
"Who owns the newswire account?" If the firm owns it, your distribution history and pricing leave with them when you part ways.
"What's metered?" Word count, logo, images, extra regions — get the add-on schedule in writing before your first 900-word drill-results release.
"Is any compensation tied to our share price or volume?" If yes, walk away — fee structures tied to price or volume are a serious regulatory red flag on both sides of the border.

Red flag worth naming: "unlimited press releases" bundled into a suspiciously low retainer usually means one of two things — the releases aren't actually being wired (they're posted to a website and called "distributed"), or the wire fees will appear later as pass-throughs. Ask which.

How we structure it at FoundryIR

We think the honest version of this pricing is simple: drafting and wire distribution together, at a published flat rate — US$499 per release, one-time, no subscription — and monthly retainers that cover the ongoing IR work (monitoring, targeting, investor materials) without word-count meters or logo line-items. Whatever provider you use, the test is the same: you should be able to predict the total cost of your next release before you write it. Our pricing is published here, and our free Investor Visibility Audit will show you — with counted numbers — whether the releases you're already paying for are actually reaching investors.

Educational content, not investment, legal, or disclosure advice. Pricing practices vary by firm and wire; verify quotes directly. Consult your securities counsel on disclosure decisions.