diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index ccc5bf273c..aee2d99981 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 SUBDIRS = externals src scripts corepkgs doc misc tests
 EXTRA_DIST = substitute.mk nix.spec nix.spec.in bootstrap.sh \
-  svn-revision nix.conf.example
+  svn-revision nix.conf.example NEWS
 
 include ./substitute.mk
 
@@ -45,3 +45,8 @@ endif
 
 svn-revision:
 	svnversion . > svn-revision
+
+all-local: NEWS
+
+NEWS:
+	cp doc/manual/NEWS.txt NEWS
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 79b4830616..3216539561 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ NEED_PROG(bunzip2, bunzip2)
 NEED_PROG(shell, sh)
 AC_PATH_PROG(xmllint, xmllint, false)
 AC_PATH_PROG(xsltproc, xsltproc, false)
+AC_PATH_PROG(w3m, w3m, false)
 AC_PATH_PROG(flex, flex, false)
 AC_PATH_PROG(bison, bison, false)
 NEED_PROG(perl, perl)
diff --git a/doc/manual/Makefile.am b/doc/manual/Makefile.am
index 2cc3766120..c85c79d9d5 100644
--- a/doc/manual/Makefile.am
+++ b/doc/manual/Makefile.am
@@ -51,7 +51,8 @@ NEWS.txt: release-notes.xml
 	$(XSLTPROC) --nonet --xinclude quote-literals.xsl release-notes.xml | \
 	  $(XSLTPROC) --nonet --output $@.tmp.html $(NEWS_OPTS) \
 	  $(docbookxsl)/html/docbook.xsl -
-	w3m -dump $@.tmp.html > $@
+	$(w3m) -dump $@.tmp.html > $@
+	rm $@.tmp.html
 
 
 all-local: manual.html NEWS.html NEWS.txt
@@ -71,7 +72,7 @@ images:
 	cp $(docbookxsl)/images/callouts/*.png images/callouts
 	chmod +w -R images
 
-KEEP = manual.html manual.is-valid version.txt $(MANS)
+KEEP = manual.html manual.is-valid version.txt $(MANS) NEWS.html NEWS.txt
 
 EXTRA_DIST = $(MANUAL_SRCS) $(FIGURES) $(KEEP)