diff --git a/recipes/nrc_next.recipe b/recipes/nrc_next.recipe
index c630296595..5cbe23a6a4 100644
--- a/recipes/nrc_next.recipe
+++ b/recipes/nrc_next.recipe
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ __copyright__ = '2014, Niels Giesen'
 '''
 www.nrc.nl
 '''
-import os, zipfile
+import os, zipfile, re
 from io import BytesIO
 
 from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
@@ -57,5 +57,17 @@ class NRCNext(BasicNewsRecipe):
 
         zfile = zipfile.ZipFile(BytesIO(epubraw), 'r')
         zfile.extractall(self.output_dir)
+        namelist = zfile.namelist()
+        emre = re.compile("<em(?:.*)>(.*)</em>")
+        subst = '\\1'
+        for name in namelist:
+            _, ext = os.path.splitext(name);
+            if (ext == '.html') or (ext == '.ncx'):
+                fname = os.path.join(self.output_dir, name)
+                with open(fname) as f:
+                    s = f.read()
+                    s = emre.sub(subst, s)
+                with open(fname, 'w') as f:
+                    f.write(s)
         index = os.path.join(self.output_dir, 'metadata.opf')
         return index