diff --git a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java
index 0455049e..474c080a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 package com.commafeed.backend;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
+
 import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
 import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
+import org.apache.http.client.ClientProtocolException;
 import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
 import org.apache.http.client.params.CookiePolicy;
@@ -18,7 +21,8 @@ public class HttpGetter {
 		return new String(getBinary(url), "UTF-8");
 	}
 
-	public byte[] getBinary(String url) throws Exception {
+	public byte[] getBinary(String url) throws ClientProtocolException,
+			IOException {
 		byte[] content = null;
 
 		HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FeedFetcher.java b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FeedFetcher.java
index 99535ff2..811952f1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FeedFetcher.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FeedFetcher.java
@@ -1,7 +1,11 @@
 package com.commafeed.backend.feeds;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
+
 import javax.inject.Inject;
 
+import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.StringUtils;
+import org.apache.http.client.ClientProtocolException;
 import org.jsoup.Jsoup;
 import org.jsoup.nodes.Document;
 import org.jsoup.select.Elements;
@@ -22,21 +26,19 @@ public class FeedFetcher {
 	@Inject
 	HttpGetter getter;
 
-	public Feed fetch(String feedUrl) throws FeedException {
+	public Feed fetch(String feedUrl) throws FeedException,
+			ClientProtocolException, IOException {
 		log.debug("Fetching feed {}", feedUrl);
 		Feed feed = null;
 
-		try {
-			byte[] content = getter.getBinary(feedUrl);
-			String extractedUrl = extractFeedUrl(new String(content, "UTF-8"));
-			if (extractedUrl != null) {
-				content = getter.getBinary(extractedUrl);
-				feedUrl = extractedUrl;
-			}
-			feed = parser.parse(feedUrl, content);
-		} catch (Exception e) {
-			throw new FeedException(e.getMessage(), e);
+		byte[] content = getter.getBinary(feedUrl);
+		String extractedUrl = extractFeedUrl(StringUtils.newStringUtf8(content));
+		if (extractedUrl != null) {
+			content = getter.getBinary(extractedUrl);
+			feedUrl = extractedUrl;
 		}
+		feed = parser.parse(feedUrl, content);
+
 		return feed;
 	}
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/rest/resources/SubscriptionsREST.java b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/rest/resources/SubscriptionsREST.java
index ed6b734a..43f7ea55 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/rest/resources/SubscriptionsREST.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/rest/resources/SubscriptionsREST.java
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ import com.commafeed.frontend.model.Subscription;
 import com.commafeed.frontend.model.SubscriptionRequest;
 import com.commafeed.frontend.rest.resources.EntriesREST.Type;
 import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
-import com.sun.syndication.io.FeedException;
 
 @Path("subscriptions")
 public class SubscriptionsREST extends AbstractREST {
@@ -44,7 +43,7 @@ public class SubscriptionsREST extends AbstractREST {
 		Feed feed = null;
 		try {
 			feed = feedFetcher.fetch(url);
-		} catch (FeedException e) {
+		} catch (Exception e) {
 			throw new WebApplicationException(e, Response
 					.status(Status.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR)
 					.entity(e.getMessage()).build());