diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 36c8bb19a11..37814de6afa 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
 AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
 AC_SYS_LARGEFILE
 AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT([/usr])
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign 1.11 -Wall -Wno-portability silent-rules tar-pax no-dist-gzip dist-xz subdir-objects])
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign 1.11 -Wall -Wno-portability silent-rules tar-pax no-dist-gzip dist-xz subdir-objects check-news])
 
 AC_SUBST(PACKAGE_URL, [http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd])