diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 55cae89fa..f2cd574a9 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ endif
 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign
 EXTRA_DIST  = autogen.sh copy-builtin
 EXTRA_DIST += config/config.awk config/rpm.am config/deb.am config/tgz.am
-EXTRA_DIST += META AUTHORS COPYRIGHT LICENSE NOTICE README.md
+EXTRA_DIST += META AUTHORS COPYRIGHT LICENSE NEWS NOTICE README.md
 
 @CODE_COVERAGE_RULES@
 
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bbdc2b69b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Descriptions of all releases can be found on github:
+
+https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/releases