diff --git a/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md b/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
index 1191fad27..ad3fea61e 100644
--- a/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
+++ b/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
@@ -2,13 +2,14 @@ Thanks for submitting a PR, your contribution is really appreciated!
 
 Here's a quick checklist that should be present in PRs:
 
-- [ ] Target: for bug or doc fixes, target `master`; for new features, target `features`;
+- [ ] Add a new news fragment into the changelog folder
+  * name it `$issue_id.$type` for example (588.bug)
+  * if you don't have an issue_id change it to the pr id after creating the pr
+  * ensure type is one of `removal`, `feature`, `bugfix`, `vendor`, `doc` or `trivial`
+  * Make sure to use full sentences with correct case and punctuation, for example: "Fix issue with non-ascii contents in doctest text files."
+- [ ] Target: for `bugfix`, `vendor`, `doc` or `trivial` fixes, target `master`; for removals or features target `features`;
+- [ ] Make sure to include reasonable tests for your change if necessary
 
-Unless your change is trivial documentation fix (e.g.,  a typo or reword of a small section) please:
+Unless your change is a trivial or a documentation fix (e.g.,  a typo or reword of a small section) please:
 
-- [ ] Make sure to include one or more tests for your change;
 - [ ] Add yourself to `AUTHORS`;
-- [ ] Add a new entry to `CHANGELOG.rst`
-  * Choose any open position to avoid merge conflicts with other PRs.
-  * Add a link to the issue you are fixing (if any) using RST syntax.
-  * The pytest team likes to have people to acknowledged in the `CHANGELOG`, so please add a thank note to yourself ("Thanks @user for the PR") and a link to your GitHub profile. It may sound weird thanking yourself, but otherwise a maintainer would have to do it manually before or after merging instead of just using GitHub's merge button. This makes it easier on the maintainers to merge PRs. 
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index e6a6bd9b9..2de3c1ded 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
-3.1.1 (unreleased)
-==================
+.. 
+    You should *NOT* be adding new change log entries to this file, this
+    file is managed by towncrier. You *may* edit previous change logs to
+    fix problems like typo corrections or such.
+    To add a new change log entry, please see
+    https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/development/#adding-a-news-entry
+    we named the news folder changelog
 
-* Fix encoding errors for unicode warnings in Python 2. (towncrier: 2436.bugfix)
 
-* Fix issue with non-ascii contents in doctest text files. (towncrier: 2434.bugfix)
+.. towncrier release notes start
 
 
 3.1.0 (2017-05-22)
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 51041f0c9..abf57fece 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 include CHANGELOG.rst
 include LICENSE
 include AUTHORS
+include pyproject.toml
 
 include README.rst
 include CONTRIBUTING.rst
@@ -9,6 +10,7 @@ include HOWTORELEASE.rst
 include tox.ini
 include setup.py
 
+recursive-include changelog *
 recursive-include scripts *.py
 recursive-include scripts *.bat
 
diff --git a/changelog/2390.doc b/changelog/2390.doc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2d255b0e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/2390.doc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+initial addition of towncrier
diff --git a/changelog/2434.bugfix b/changelog/2434.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a13d233ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/2434.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix issue with non-ascii contents in doctest text files.
diff --git a/changelog/2436.bugfix b/changelog/2436.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2f12944bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/2436.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix encoding errors for unicode warnings in Python 2.
diff --git a/changelog/_template.rst b/changelog/_template.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e0eb86a67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/_template.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+{% for section in sections %}
+{% set underline = "-" %}
+{% if section %}
+{{section}}
+{{ underline * section|length }}{% set underline = "~" %}
+
+{% endif %}
+{% if sections[section] %}
+{% for category, val in definitions.items() if category in sections[section] and category != 'trivial' %}
+
+{{ definitions[category]['name'] }}
+{{ underline * definitions[category]['name']|length }}
+
+{% if definitions[category]['showcontent'] %}
+{% for text, values in sections[section][category]|dictsort(by='value') %}
+- {{ text }}{% if category != 'vendor' %} ({{ values|sort|join(', ') }}){% endif %}
+
+{% endfor %}
+{% else %}
+- {{ sections[section][category]['']|sort|join(', ') }}
+
+
+{% endif %}
+{% if sections[section][category]|length == 0 %}
+
+No significant changes.
+
+
+{% else %}
+{% endif %}
+{% endfor %}
+{% else %}
+
+No significant changes.
+
+
+{% endif %}
+{% endfor %}
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..138fd4ce6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+[tool.towncrier]
+package = "pytest"
+filename = "CHANGELOG.rst"
+directory = "changelog/"
+template = "changelog/_template.rst"
+
+  [[tool.towncrier.type]]
+  directory = "removal"
+  name = "Deprecations and Removals"
+  showcontent = true
+
+  [[tool.towncrier.type]]
+  directory = "feature"
+  name = "Features"
+  showcontent = true
+
+  [[tool.towncrier.type]]
+  directory = "bugfix"
+  name = "Bug Fixes"
+  showcontent = true
+
+  [[tool.towncrier.type]]
+  directory = "vendor"
+  name = "Vendored Libraries"
+  showcontent = true
+
+  [[tool.towncrier.type]]
+  directory = "doc"
+  name = "Improved Documentation"
+  showcontent = true
+
+  [[tool.towncrier.type]]
+  directory = "trivial"
+  name = "Trivial Changes"
+  showcontent = false
diff --git a/scripts/check-manifest.py b/scripts/check-manifest.py
index 909e7519b..de1357685 100644
--- a/scripts/check-manifest.py
+++ b/scripts/check-manifest.py
@@ -11,10 +11,10 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 import os
 import subprocess
 import sys
-
+from check_manifest import main
 
 if os.path.isdir('.git'):
-    sys.exit(subprocess.call('check-manifest', shell=True))
+    sys.exit(main())
 else:
     print('No .git directory found, skipping checking the manifest file')
     sys.exit(0)
diff --git a/scripts/check-rst.py b/scripts/check-rst.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..57f717501
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/check-rst.py
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+
+from __future__ import print_function
+
+import subprocess
+import glob
+import sys
+
+sys.exit(subprocess.call([
+    'rst-lint', '--encoding', 'utf-8',
+    'CHANGELOG.rst', 'HOWTORELEASE.rst', 'README.rst',
+] + glob.glob('changelog/[0-9]*.*')))
diff --git a/tasks/generate.py b/tasks/generate.py
index cc4791736..fa8ee6557 100644
--- a/tasks/generate.py
+++ b/tasks/generate.py
@@ -96,9 +96,10 @@ def devpi_upload(ctx, version, user, password=None):
                 '(if not given assumed logged in)',
 })
 def pre_release(ctx, version, user, password=None):
-    """Generates new docs, release announcements and uploads a new release to devpi for testing."""    
+    """Generates new docs, release announcements and uploads a new release to devpi for testing."""
     announce(ctx, version)
     regen(ctx)
+    changelog(ctx, version, write_out=True)
 
     msg = 'Preparing release version {}'.format(version)
     check_call(['git', 'commit', '-a', '-m', msg])
@@ -146,3 +147,16 @@ def publish_release(ctx, version, user, pypi_name):
     print(' ', ','.join(emails))
     print()
     print('And announce it on twitter adding the #pytest hash tag.')
+
+
+@invoke.task(help={
+    'version': 'version being released',
+    'write_out': 'write changes to the actial changelog'
+})
+def changelog(ctx, version, write_out=False):
+    if write_out:
+        addopts = []
+    else:
+        addopts = ['--draft']
+    check_call(['towncrier', '--version', version] + addopts)
+
diff --git a/tasks/requirements.txt b/tasks/requirements.txt
index 35afc29c8..eb12df3e9 100644
--- a/tasks/requirements.txt
+++ b/tasks/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 invoke
 tox
 gitpython
+towncrier
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index f30557a4b..ecde435da 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ deps =
 commands =
     {envpython} scripts/check-manifest.py
     flake8 pytest.py _pytest testing
-    rst-lint CHANGELOG.rst HOWTORELEASE.rst README.rst --encoding utf-8
+    {envpython} scripts/check-rst.py
 
 [testenv:py27-xdist]
 deps=pytest-xdist>=1.13