diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 1cd82bb20..1d038f858 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2004-05-04  Elijah Newren  <newren@math.utah.edu>
+
+	* configure.in: 2.8.1
+
+	* NEWS: update
+
 2004-05-02  Rob Adams  <readams@readams.net>
 
 	* src/metacity-dialog.c (warn_about_no_sm_support): make the no sm
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index f86971af2..53c54154e 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+2.8.1
+===
+
+Thanks to Olivier Crete, Jarrod Johnson, Neil Muller, Elijah Newren,
+Mark McLoughlin, Rob Adams, and foser AT gentoo.org for fixes in this
+release.
+
+  - make the --enable-xinerama switch work properly
+  - prevent unwanted grab op from occurring
+  - don't down-size nitems from a gulong to an int
+  - add a value type check for the visual/audible bell gconf settings
+  - make the no sm support warning resizable
+  - more translations
+
 2.8.0
 ===
 
diff --git a/README b/README
index e87062488..e37e64f99 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ on UNIX keyboards.
 The first release of Metacity was version 2.3. Metacity has no need for
 your petty hangups about version numbers.
 
-The stable releases so far are 2.4.x, 2.6.x
+The stable releases so far are 2.4.x, 2.6.x, 2.8.x
 
 Unstable branches are 2.3.x, 2.5.x
 
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 767eaac69..6c83ccb86 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ AM_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h)
 
 # 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987 
 # releases on a branch add a 4th version like 2.4.21.1
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(metacity, 2.8.0)
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(metacity, 2.8.1)
 
 # Honor aclocal flags
 ACLOCAL="$ACLOCAL $ACLOCAL_FLAGS"
@@ -439,4 +439,4 @@ metacity-$VERSION:
 	Xsync:                    ${found_xsync}
         Deprecated config dialog: ${enable_config_dialog}
 "
-echo "This is the UNSTABLE branch of metacity, use 2.6.x for stable (gnome-2-4 branch in CVS)"
+#echo "This is the UNSTABLE branch of metacity, use 2.8.x for stable (gnome-2-6 branch in CVS)"