diff --git a/resources/recipes/nytimes_sub.recipe b/resources/recipes/nytimes_sub.recipe
index 2dc15d8f0d..9944f919be 100644
--- a/resources/recipes/nytimes_sub.recipe
+++ b/resources/recipes/nytimes_sub.recipe
@@ -48,7 +48,9 @@ class NYTimes(BasicNewsRecipe):
         return 'NY Times'
 
     def parse_index(self):
+        self.encoding = 'cp1252'
         soup = self.index_to_soup('http://www.nytimes.com/pages/todayspaper/index.html')
+        self.encoding = None
 
         def feed_title(div):
             return ''.join(div.findAll(text=True, recursive=False)).strip()