diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index d264714df..6db6f10c1 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # Edit this release and run "make release"
-RELEASE=2.8.0
+RELEASE=2.8.1
 
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index f01e84871..0ebad8273 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+tron (2.8.1) jammy; urgency=medium
+
+  * 2.8.1 tagged with 'make release'
+    Commit: Merge pull request #1004 from Yelp/u/kkasp/TRON-2237-
+    timedeltas-cant-json  Use total_seconds for timedeltas. Log job and
+    jobrun names/runnums on serialization
+
+ -- Kevin Kaspari <kkasp@yelp.com>  Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:11:35 -0700
+
 tron (2.8.0) jammy; urgency=medium
 
   * 2.8.0 tagged with 'make release'
diff --git a/tron/__init__.py b/tron/__init__.py
index 690b92f3b..38b5fced0 100644
--- a/tron/__init__.py
+++ b/tron/__init__.py
@@ -17,4 +17,4 @@
 # setup phase, the dependencies may not exist on disk yet.
 #
 # Don't bump version manually. See `make release` docs in ./Makefile
-__version__ = "2.8.0"
+__version__ = "2.8.1"