diff --git a/src/calibre/web/site_parsers/nytimes.py b/src/calibre/web/site_parsers/nytimes.py
index acbc8b3df0..7b94f97ae9 100644
--- a/src/calibre/web/site_parsers/nytimes.py
+++ b/src/calibre/web/site_parsers/nytimes.py
@@ -4,12 +4,12 @@
 
 import json
 import re
-from xml.sax.saxutils import escape, quoteattr
+import sys
 from pprint import pprint
+from xml.sax.saxutils import escape, quoteattr
 
 from calibre.utils.iso8601 import parse_iso8601
 
-
 module_version = 4  # needed for live updates
 pprint
 
@@ -186,20 +186,26 @@ def extract_html(soup):
     return json_to_html(raw)
 
 
-def download_url(url, br):
+def download_url(url=None, br=None):
     # Get the URL from the Wayback machine
     from mechanize import Request
+    host = 'http://localhost:8090'
+    host = 'https://wayback1.calibre-ebook.com'
+    if url is None:
+        url = sys.argv[-1]
     rq = Request(
-        'http://localhost:8090/nytimes',
+        host + '/nytimes',
         data=json.dumps({"url": url}),
         headers={'User-Agent': 'calibre', 'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
     )
+    if br is None:
+        from calibre import browser
+        br = browser()
     br.set_handle_gzip(True)
     return br.open_novisit(rq, timeout=3 * 60).read()
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
-    import sys
     f = sys.argv[-1]
     raw = open(f).read()
     if f.endswith('.html'):