diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 1df046a..8d9fd62 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -82,11 +82,15 @@ Cobalt is Copyright 2015-2020 AfricanLII.
 Change Log
 ----------
 
+8.0.0
+-----
+
+- Parser now accepts both strings and bytes, and will encode strings to bytes using UTF-8
+
 7.0.0
 -----
 
 - Rename ``DebateReport`` to ``Debate``
-- Parser now accepts both strings and bytes, and will encode strings to bytes using UTF-8
 
 6.1.0
 -----
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 66ce77b..ae9a76b 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-7.0.0
+8.0.0