diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3fe5d78a..a96be5a7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,10 +1,9 @@
 # Micro
-![Coverage](https://img.shields.io/badge/Coverage-44.8%25-yellow)
+![Coverage](https://img.shields.io/badge/Coverage-44.6%25-yellow)
 [![License](https://img.shields.io/:license-apache-blue.svg)](https://opensource.org/licenses/Apache-2.0)
 [![Doc](https://img.shields.io/badge/go.dev-reference-007d9c?logo=go&logoColor=white&style=flat-square)](https://pkg.go.dev/go.unistack.org/micro/v3?tab=overview)
 [![Status](https://git.unistack.org/unistack-org/micro/actions/workflows/job_tests.yml/badge.svg?branch=v3)](https://git.unistack.org/unistack-org/micro/actions?query=workflow%3Abuild+branch%3Av3+event%3Apush)
-[![Lint](https://goreportcard.com/badge/go.unistack.org/micro/v3)](https://goreportcard.com/report/go.unistack.org/micro/v3) 
-![Coverage](https://img.shields.io/badge/coverage-44.6%25-yellow)
+[![Lint](https://goreportcard.com/badge/go.unistack.org/micro/v3)](https://goreportcard.com/report/go.unistack.org/micro/v3)
 
 Micro is a standard library for microservices.
 
diff --git a/client/noop.go b/client/noop.go
index f8f56265..02be926d 100644
--- a/client/noop.go
+++ b/client/noop.go
@@ -588,7 +588,6 @@ func (n *noopClient) publish(ctx context.Context, ps []Message, opts ...PublishO
 
 	for _, p := range ps {
 		md := metadata.Copy(omd)
-		md[metadata.HeaderContentType] = p.ContentType()
 		topic := p.Topic()
 		if len(exchange) > 0 {
 			topic = exchange
@@ -600,6 +599,8 @@ func (n *noopClient) publish(ctx context.Context, ps []Message, opts ...PublishO
 			md.Set(k, v)
 		}
 
+		md[metadata.HeaderContentType] = p.ContentType()
+
 		var body []byte
 
 		// passed in raw data