diff --git a/doc/announce/release-1.3.1.txt b/doc/announce/release-1.3.1.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b2342848a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/announce/release-1.3.1.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+py.test/pylib 1.3.1: new py.test.xfail, better reporting, fixes
+===========================================================================
+
+The 1.3.1 release introduces several bug fixes and brings shorter, 
+more concise tracebacks in some cases where it displayed a lot of info. 
+It also further improves compatibility on Jython and PyPy where now virtually
+all py.test features are supported.  If you used 1.2.1 or 1.3.0 you should
+be able to upgrade to 1.3.1 without changes to your test source code. 
+See the below CHANGELOG entry below for more details and 
+http://pylib.org/install.html for installation instructions. 
+
+py.test is an advanced automated testing tool working with Python2,
+Python3, Jython and PyPy versions on all major operating systems.  It
+offers a no-boilerplate testing approach and has inspired other testing
+tools and enhancements in the standard Python library for more than five
+years.  It has a simple and extensive plugin architecture, configurable
+reporting and provides unique ways to make it fit to your testing
+process and needs.  
+
+See http://pytest.org for more info.
+
+cheers and have fun,
+
+holger krekel
+
+Changes between 1.3.0 and 1.3.1
+==================================================
+
+New features 
+++++++++++++++++++
+
+- issue91: introduce new py.test.xfail(reason) helper 
+  to imperatively mark a test as expected to fail. Can 
+  be used from within setup and test functions. This is
+  useful especially for parametrized tests when certain 
+  configurations are expected-to-fail.  In this case the
+  declarative approach with the @py.test.mark.xfail cannot
+  be used as it would mark all configurations as xfail. 
+
+- issue89: allow py.test.mark decorators to be used on classes
+  (class decorators were introduced with python2.6) and 
+  also allow to have multiple markers applied at class/module level
+  by specifying a list. 
+
+- improve and refine letter reporting in the progress bar:
+  .  pass
+  f  failed test
+  s  skipped tests (reminder: use for dependency/platform mismatch only)
+  x  xfailed test (test that was expected to fail)
+  X  xpassed test (test that was expected to fail but passed)
+
+  You can use any combination of 'fsxX' with the '-r' extended
+  reporting option. The xfail/xpass results will show up as 
+  skipped tests in the junitxml output - which also fixes 
+  issue99.
+
+- make py.test.cmdline.main() return the exitstatus instead of raising 
+  SystemExit and also allow it to be called multiple times.  This of
+  course requires that your application and tests are properly teared 
+  down and don't have global state. 
+
+Fixes / Maintenance 
+++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+- improved traceback presentation: 
+  - improved and unified reporting for "--tb=short" option
+  - Errors during test module imports are much shorter, (using --tb=short style)
+  - raises shows shorter more relevant tracebacks
+
+- improve support for raises and other dynamically compiled code by
+  manipulating python's linecache.cache instead of the previous
+  rather hacky way of creating custom code objects.  This makes 
+  it seemlessly work on Jython and PyPy where it previously didn't.
+
+- fix issue96: make capturing more resilient against Control-C 
+  interruptions (involved somewhat substantial refactoring
+  to the underlying capturing functionality to avoid race 
+  conditions).
+
+- fix chaining of conditional skipif/xfail decorators - so it works now 
+  as expected to use multiple @py.test.mark.skipif(condition) decorators,
+  including specific reporting which of the conditions lead to skipping. 
+
+- fix issue95: late-import zlib so that it's not required 
+  for general py.test startup. 
+
+- fix issue94: make reporting more robust against bogus source code
+  (and internally be more careful when presenting unexpected byte sequences)
+
diff --git a/py/__init__.py b/py/__init__.py
index de154b129..31f88b213 100644
--- a/py/__init__.py
+++ b/py/__init__.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ dictionary or an import path.
 
 (c) Holger Krekel and others, 2004-2010
 """
-__version__ = version = "1.3.1a1"
+__version__ = version = "1.3.1"
 
 import py.apipkg
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 25d41fe01..c6b902848 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ def main():
         name='py',
         description='py.test and pylib: rapid testing and development utils.',
         long_description = long_description,
-        version= '1.3.1a1',
+        version= '1.3.1',
         url='http://pylib.org',
         license='MIT license',
         platforms=['unix', 'linux', 'osx', 'cygwin', 'win32'],