According to Investopedia.com:
Similar to an individual company's stock, an ETF sets an ex-dividend date, a record date, and a payment date. These dates determine who receives the dividend and when the dividend gets paid.
Source: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/120415/how-dividendpaying-etfs-work.asp
Investopedia does not go into great details for ETFs, but that page directly links to another Investopedia page regarding equity dividends, which states:
The ex-dividend date or "ex-date" is the day the stock starts trading without the value of its next dividend payment. Typically, the ex-dividend date for a stock is one business day before the record date, meaning that an investor who buys the stock on its ex-dividend date or later will not be eligible to receive the declared dividend. Rather, the dividend payment is made to whoever owned the stock the day before the ex-dividend date.
Source: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ex-dividend.asp
And yet, when looking at the prospectus for the popular SPDR DIA
ETF (which tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average, DJIA), it seems to state just the opposite:
The regular monthly ex-dividend date for Units is the third (3rd) Friday in each calendar month, unless such day is not a Business Day, in which case the ex-dividend date is the immediately preceding Business Day (“Ex-Dividend Date”). Beneficial Owners reflected on the records of DTC and the DTC Participants on the first (1st) Business Day following the Ex-Dividend Date (“Record Date”) are entitled to receive an amount representing dividends accumulated on Portfolio Securities through the monthly dividend period which ends on the Business Day preceding such Ex-Dividend Date (including stocks with ex-dividend dates falling within such monthly dividend period), net of fees and expenses, accrued daily for such period. ... The payment of dividends is made on the Monday preceding the third (3rd) Friday of the next calendar month...
Source: SPDR DIA ETF Trust Prospectus (2020), page 61 (emphasis added)
https://www.ssga.com/library-content/products/fund-docs/etfs/us/ps/DIA_PROSPECTUS.pdf
It sounds like SPDR DIA ETF does not pay any dividends to fund owners who own the ETF on the day before the ex-dividend date, contrary to Investopedia. Furthermore, it sounds like they only pay dividends to fund owners who own the fund the day after the ex-dividend date, which seems completely backwards.
What's going on here? Does this ETF break typical conventions, or is this common? Perhaps there a fundamental principle missing from this analysis? How would one be aware of this without wading through the entire 80 page prospectus?