diff --git a/recipes/attac_es.recipe b/recipes/attac_es.recipe
index 6ff67efbdd..e57d321423 100644
--- a/recipes/attac_es.recipe
+++ b/recipes/attac_es.recipe
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 # vim:fileencoding=utf-8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
-import urllib
 
 class AttacEspanaRecipe (BasicNewsRecipe):
     __author__ = 'Marc Busqué <marc@lamarciana.com>'
@@ -17,7 +16,14 @@ class AttacEspanaRecipe (BasicNewsRecipe):
     oldest_article = 7
     remove_empty_feeds = True
     no_stylesheets = True
-    extra_css = urllib.urlopen('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+
+    def get_extra_css(self):
+        if not self.extra_css:
+            br = self.get_browser()
+            self.extra_css = br.open_novisit(
+                'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+        return self.extra_css
+
     cover_url = u'http://www.attac.es/wp-content/themes/attacweb/images/attaces.jpg'
 
     feeds = [
diff --git a/recipes/grandes_corresponsales_es.recipe b/recipes/grandes_corresponsales_es.recipe
index 8b7e8f670c..5ce2ad71ba 100644
--- a/recipes/grandes_corresponsales_es.recipe
+++ b/recipes/grandes_corresponsales_es.recipe
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 # vim:fileencoding=utf-8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
-import urllib
 
 class GrandesCorresponsalesRecipe (BasicNewsRecipe):
     __author__ = 'Marc Busqué <marc@lamarciana.com>'
@@ -16,7 +15,13 @@ class GrandesCorresponsalesRecipe (BasicNewsRecipe):
     oldest_article = 30
     remove_empty_feeds = True
     no_stylesheets = True
-    extra_css = urllib.urlopen('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+
+    def get_extra_css(self):
+        if not self.extra_css:
+            br = self.get_browser()
+            self.extra_css = br.open_novisit(
+                'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+        return self.extra_css
 
     feeds = [
           (u'Rafael Poch', u'http://blogs.lavanguardia.com/berlin/feed'),
diff --git a/recipes/historias_del_mundo_es.recipe b/recipes/historias_del_mundo_es.recipe
index ee75cda891..5cc2fb3022 100644
--- a/recipes/historias_del_mundo_es.recipe
+++ b/recipes/historias_del_mundo_es.recipe
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 # vim:fileencoding=utf-8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
-import urllib
 
 class HistoriasDelMundo (BasicNewsRecipe):
     __author__ = 'Marc Busqué <marc@lamarciana.com>'
@@ -18,7 +17,13 @@ class HistoriasDelMundo (BasicNewsRecipe):
     remove_empty_feeds = True
     no_stylesheets = True
     cover_url = u'http://www.marcbusque.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/cuchitril.png'
-    extra_css = urllib.urlopen('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+
+    def get_extra_css(self):
+        if not self.extra_css:
+            br = self.get_browser()
+            self.extra_css = br.open_novisit(
+                'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+        return self.extra_css
 
     feeds = [
           (u'Historias del Mundo', u'http://www.marcbusque.org/?feed=rss'),
diff --git a/recipes/histories_del_mon_ca.recipe b/recipes/histories_del_mon_ca.recipe
index 2766e70cb8..f3f682ddc8 100644
--- a/recipes/histories_del_mon_ca.recipe
+++ b/recipes/histories_del_mon_ca.recipe
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 # vim:fileencoding=utf-8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
-import urllib
 
 class HistoriesDelMon (BasicNewsRecipe):
     __author__ = 'Marc Busqué <marc@lamarciana.com>'
@@ -18,7 +17,13 @@ class HistoriesDelMon (BasicNewsRecipe):
     remove_empty_feeds = True
     no_stylesheets = True
     cover_url = u'http://www.marcbusque.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/cuchitril.png'
-    extra_css = urllib.urlopen('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+
+    def get_extra_css(self):
+        if not self.extra_css:
+            br = self.get_browser()
+            self.extra_css = br.open_novisit(
+                'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+        return self.extra_css
 
     feeds = [
           (u'Històries del Món', u'http://www.marcbusque.org/ca/feed/'),
diff --git a/recipes/lavanguardia_corresponsales_es.recipe b/recipes/lavanguardia_corresponsales_es.recipe
index 44ef8bae00..d2c9708c8c 100644
--- a/recipes/lavanguardia_corresponsales_es.recipe
+++ b/recipes/lavanguardia_corresponsales_es.recipe
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 # vim:fileencoding=utf-8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
-import urllib
 
 class LaVanguardiaCorresponsalesRecipe (BasicNewsRecipe):
     __author__ = 'Marc Busqué <marc@lamarciana.com>'
@@ -17,7 +16,13 @@ class LaVanguardiaCorresponsalesRecipe (BasicNewsRecipe):
     oldest_article = 30
     remove_empty_feeds = True
     no_stylesheets = True
-    extra_css = urllib.urlopen('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+
+    def get_extra_css(self):
+        if not self.extra_css:
+            br = self.get_browser()
+            self.extra_css = br.open_novisit(
+                'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+        return self.extra_css
 
     feeds = [
           (u'Marc Bassets - Diario de Washington', u'http://blogs.lavanguardia.com/washington/feed'),
diff --git a/recipes/list_apart.recipe b/recipes/list_apart.recipe
index 071d92b426..03be607142 100644
--- a/recipes/list_apart.recipe
+++ b/recipes/list_apart.recipe
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
 import re
-import urllib
 
 class AListApart (BasicNewsRecipe):
     __author__ = 'Marc Busqué <marc@lamarciana.com>'
@@ -18,7 +17,13 @@ class AListApart (BasicNewsRecipe):
     remove_empty_feeds = True
     encoding = 'utf8'
     cover_url = u'http://alistapart.com/pix/alalogo.gif'
-    extra_css = urllib.urlopen('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+
+    def get_extra_css(self):
+        if not self.extra_css:
+            br = self.get_browser()
+            self.extra_css = br.open_novisit(
+                'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+        return self.extra_css
 
     feeds = [
           (u'A List Apart', u'http://feeds.feedburner.com/alistapart/abridged'),
diff --git a/recipes/periodismo_humano_es.recipe b/recipes/periodismo_humano_es.recipe
index ffd70bf51f..7817da9236 100644
--- a/recipes/periodismo_humano_es.recipe
+++ b/recipes/periodismo_humano_es.recipe
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 # vim:fileencoding=utf-8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
-import urllib
 
 class PeriodismoHumanoRecipe (BasicNewsRecipe):
     __author__ = 'Marc Busqué <marc@lamarciana.com>'
@@ -16,7 +15,13 @@ class PeriodismoHumanoRecipe (BasicNewsRecipe):
     language = u'es'
     tags = u'información, contrainformación, información alternativa'
     remove_empty_feeds = True
-    extra_css = urllib.urlopen('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+
+    def get_extra_css(self):
+        if not self.extra_css:
+            br = self.get_browser()
+            self.extra_css = br.open_novisit(
+                'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+        return self.extra_css
 
     feeds = [
           (u'Periodismo Humano', u'http://periodismohumano.com/feed'),
diff --git a/recipes/smashing.recipe b/recipes/smashing.recipe
index d242dd1f9a..71741a0d99 100644
--- a/recipes/smashing.recipe
+++ b/recipes/smashing.recipe
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 # vim:fileencoding=utf-8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from calibre.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe
-import urllib
 
 class SmashingMagazine (BasicNewsRecipe):
     __author__ = 'Marc Busqué <marc@lamarciana.com>'
@@ -19,7 +18,13 @@ class SmashingMagazine (BasicNewsRecipe):
     encoding = 'utf8'
     cover_url = u'http://media.smashingmagazine.com/themes/smashingv4/images/logo.png'
     remove_attributes = ['border', 'cellspacing', 'align', 'cellpadding', 'colspan', 'valign', 'vspace', 'hspace', 'alt', 'width', 'height', 'style']
-    extra_css = urllib.urlopen('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+
+    def get_extra_css(self):
+        if not self.extra_css:
+            br = self.get_browser()
+            self.extra_css = br.open_novisit(
+                'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laMarciana/gutenweb/master/dist/gutenweb.css').read().replace('@charset "UTF-8";', '')
+        return self.extra_css
 
     feeds = [
           (u'Smashing Magazine', u'http://rss1.smashingmagazine.com/feed/'),
diff --git a/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py b/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py
index 36123ec4a8..2573f85114 100644
--- a/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py
+++ b/src/calibre/web/feeds/news.py
@@ -162,6 +162,8 @@ class BasicNewsRecipe(Recipe):
     #: It will be inserted into `<style>` tags, just before the closing
     #: `</head>` tag thereby overriding all :term:`CSS` except that which is
     #: declared using the style attribute on individual :term:`HTML` tags.
+    #: Note that if you want to programmatically generate the extra_css override
+    #: the :meth:`get_extra_css()` method instead.
     #: For example::
     #:
     #:     extra_css = '.heading { font: serif x-large }'
@@ -400,6 +402,13 @@ class BasicNewsRecipe(Recipe):
         '''
         raise NotImplementedError
 
+    def get_extra_css(self):
+        '''
+        By default returns `self.extra_css`. Override if you want to programmatically generate the
+        extra_css.
+        '''
+        return self.extra_css
+
     def get_cover_url(self):
         '''
         Return a :term:`URL` to the cover image for this issue or `None`.
@@ -932,7 +941,7 @@ class BasicNewsRecipe(Recipe):
         if not head:
             head = soup.find(True)
         style = BeautifulSoup(u'<style type="text/css" title="override_css">%s</style>'%(
-            self.template_css +'\n\n'+(self.extra_css if self.extra_css else ''))).find('style')
+            self.template_css +'\n\n'+(self.get_extra_css() or ''))).find('style')
         head.insert(len(head.contents), style)
         if first_fetch and job_info:
             url, f, a, feed_len = job_info
@@ -942,7 +951,7 @@ class BasicNewsRecipe(Recipe):
                                              not self.has_single_feed,
                                              url, __appname__,
                                              center=self.center_navbar,
-                                             extra_css=self.extra_css)
+                                             extra_css=self.get_extra_css() or '')
                 elem = BeautifulSoup(templ.render(doctype='xhtml').decode('utf-8')).find('div')
                 body.insert(0, elem)
         if self.remove_javascript:
@@ -1021,7 +1030,7 @@ class BasicNewsRecipe(Recipe):
         templ = (templates.TouchscreenIndexTemplate if self.touchscreen else
                 templates.IndexTemplate)
         templ = templ(lang=self.lang_for_html)
-        css = self.template_css + '\n\n' +(self.extra_css if self.extra_css else '')
+        css = self.template_css + '\n\n' +(self.get_extra_css() or '')
         timefmt = self.timefmt
         return templ.generate(self.title, "mastheadImage.jpg", timefmt, feeds,
                               extra_css=css).render(doctype='xhtml')
@@ -1076,7 +1085,7 @@ class BasicNewsRecipe(Recipe):
         templ = (templates.TouchscreenFeedTemplate if self.touchscreen else
                     templates.FeedTemplate)
         templ = templ(lang=self.lang_for_html)
-        css = self.template_css + '\n\n' +(self.extra_css if self.extra_css else '')
+        css = self.template_css + '\n\n' +(self.get_extra_css() or '')
 
         return templ.generate(f, feeds, self.description_limiter,
                               extra_css=css).render(doctype='xhtml')