diff --git a/jrnl/exporters.py b/jrnl/exporters.py
index 04c5df8f..046f42f0 100644
--- a/jrnl/exporters.py
+++ b/jrnl/exporters.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import codecs
html_skeleton = '''
+
%s
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ def to_html(journal, open_in_browser=False):
"""renders the given journal to html
and can open it in the default browser"""
bla = to_md(journal)
- html_body = markdown.markdown(bla.decode('utf-8'))
+ html_body = markdown.markdown(bla.decode('utf8'))
print html_body
tmp_file = os.path.join(tempfile.gettempdir(), "pretty.html")
url = 'file://' + tmp_file