diff --git a/ANNOUNCE b/ANNOUNCE.md
similarity index 90%
rename from ANNOUNCE
rename to ANNOUNCE.md
index b719f44f1dd..3d8d533e44a 100644
--- a/ANNOUNCE
+++ b/ANNOUNCE.md
@@ -3,25 +3,21 @@ The Wine development release 9.0-rc3 is now available.
 What's new in this release:
   - Bug fixes only, we are in code freeze.
 
-The source is available at:
+The source is available at <https://dl.winehq.org/wine/source/9.0/wine-9.0-rc3.tar.xz>
 
-  https://dl.winehq.org/wine/source/9.0/wine-9.0-rc3.tar.xz
+Binary packages for various distributions will be available
+from <https://www.winehq.org/download>
 
-Binary packages for various distributions will be available from:
+You will find documentation on <https://www.winehq.org/documentation>
 
-  https://www.winehq.org/download
+Wine is available thanks to the work of many people.
+See the file [AUTHORS][1] for the complete list.
 
-You will find documentation on https://www.winehq.org/documentation
-
-You can also get the current source directly from the git
-repository. Check https://www.winehq.org/git for details.
-
-Wine is available thanks to the work of many people. See the file
-AUTHORS in the distribution for the complete list.
+[1]: https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/raw/wine-9.0-rc3/AUTHORS
 
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
 
-Bugs fixed in 9.0-rc3 (total 35):
+### Bugs fixed in 9.0-rc3 (total 35):
 
  - #51314  vulkan-1:vulkan crashes on Windows with recent Radeon drivers
  - #51478  dinput:device8 breaks user32:input's test_keyboard_layout_name() in some locales ()
@@ -59,10 +55,8 @@ Bugs fixed in 9.0-rc3 (total 35):
  - #56048  winedbg --auto: shows incomplete modules list
  - #56053  Regression on fallout 3 in the new wow64 mode
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Changes since 9.0-rc2:
-
+### Changes since 9.0-rc2:
+```
 Akihiro Sagawa (1):
       po: Update Japanese translation.
 
@@ -140,3 +134,4 @@ Zebediah Figura (1):
 Zhiyi Zhang (2):
       user32/tests: Add more display DC tests.
       win32u: Create a real bitmap object for display DCs.
+```
diff --git a/tools/gitlab/release.yml b/tools/gitlab/release.yml
index b7af1daa86a..553ce5430b1 100644
--- a/tools/gitlab/release.yml
+++ b/tools/gitlab/release.yml
@@ -7,15 +7,11 @@ create-release:
     - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG && $CI_PROJECT_PATH == "wine/wine"
   script:
     - VERSION=$(expr "$CI_COMMIT_TAG" ":" 'wine-\(.*\)')
-    - URL=$(grep -o "https://dl.winehq.org/.*" ANNOUNCE)
+    - test -n "$VERSION" || exit 1
+    - URL=$(grep -o "https://dl.winehq.org/[^>]*" ANNOUNCE.md)
     - FILEPATH=$(expr "$URL" ":" '.*\(/.*\)')
-    - |
-      sed -e '/^The source/,/^----------/d
-      /^----------/,$d
-      /^Bugs fixed/i--------
-      s/^\*\*\*/###/' ANNOUNCE >announce.md
     - release-cli create
         --name "Wine $VERSION"
         --tag-name "$CI_COMMIT_TAG"
-        --description announce.md
+        --description ANNOUNCE.md
         --assets-link "{\"name\":\"Source code\",\"url\":\"$URL\",\"link_type\":\"other\",\"filepath\":\"$FILEPATH\"}"
diff --git a/tools/make_announce b/tools/make_announce
index 13a391e7c44..ba829d050db 100755
--- a/tools/make_announce
+++ b/tools/make_announce
@@ -130,8 +130,8 @@ my %authors = get_authors();
 
 # update the ANNOUNCE file
 
-open ANNOUNCE, "<ANNOUNCE" or die "cannot open ANNOUNCE";
-open NEW, ">ANNOUNCE.new" or die "cannot create ANNOUNCE.new";
+open ANNOUNCE, "<ANNOUNCE.md" or die "cannot open ANNOUNCE.md";
+open NEW, ">ANNOUNCE.md.new" or die "cannot create ANNOUNCE.md.new";
 
 # replace version number in first line
 $_ = <ANNOUNCE>;
@@ -141,31 +141,34 @@ print NEW $_;
 while (<ANNOUNCE>)
 {
     last if /^------------------/;
-    s!(https?://.*/wine/source/).*\.tar!$1$reldir/wine-$new.tar!;
+    s!(https://.*/wine/source/).*\.tar!$1$reldir/wine-$new.tar!;
+    s/wine-(([0-9]+)\.)+[0-9]+(-rc[0-9]+)?/wine-$new/g;
     print NEW $_;
 }
+close ANNOUNCE;
 
 print NEW "----------------------------------------------------------------\n\n";
-printf NEW "Bugs fixed in %s (total %u):\n\n", $new, scalar( keys %bugs );
+printf NEW "### Bugs fixed in %s (total %u):\n\n", $new, scalar( keys %bugs );
 foreach my $id (sort {$a <=> $b} keys %bugs)
 {
     printf NEW " - #%-6d %s\n", $id, unescape( $bugs{$id} );
 }
 
-print NEW "\n----------------------------------------------------------------\n\n";
-print NEW "Changes since $old:\n";
+print NEW "\n### Changes since $old:\n```\n";
 
+my @shortlog = ();
 open LOG, "-|" or exec "git", "shortlog", "wine-$old..HEAD" or die "cannot run git shortlog";
 while (<LOG>)
 {
     next if /^$/;
-    if (/^(\S.*)\s\(\d+\):$/) { $authors{$1} = 1; print NEW "\n"; }
-    print NEW $_;
+    if (/^(\S.*)\s\(\d+\):$/) { $authors{$1} = 1; push @shortlog, "\n" if @shortlog; }
+    push @shortlog, $_;
 }
 close LOG;
-close ANNOUNCE;
+print NEW join("",@shortlog);
+print NEW "```\n";
 close NEW;
-update_file( "ANNOUNCE" );
+update_file( "ANNOUNCE.md" );
 
 # update the AUTHORS file