diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 42ceb5ce0..dcd3798e7 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson</groupId>
     <artifactId>jackson-base</artifactId>
-    <version>2.16.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>2.16.0</version>
   </parent>
   <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat</groupId>
   <artifactId>jackson-dataformat-xml</artifactId>
diff --git a/release-notes/VERSION-2.x b/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
index c2e9cfdfa..1289287f8 100644
--- a/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
+++ b/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Project: jackson-dataformat-xml
 === Releases ===
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-2.16.0-rc1 (20-Oct-2023)
+2.16.0-rc1 (15-Nov-2023)
 
 #148: `@JacksonXmlElementWrapper` not respected when serializing
   `Iterator`s / `Iterable`s