diff --git a/src/it/minimal-pom-output-encoding/pom.xml b/src/it/minimal-pom-output-encoding/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a48e5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/it/minimal-pom-output-encoding/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!--
+  ~ Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+  ~ or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+  ~ distributed with this work for additional information
+  ~ regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+  ~ to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+  ~ "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+  ~ with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+  ~
+  ~   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+  ~
+  ~ Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+  ~ software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+  ~ "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+  ~ KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+  ~ specific language governing permissions and limitations
+  ~ under the License.
+  -->
+
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
+         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins.changelog</groupId>
+  <artifactId>minimal-pom-output-encoding</artifactId>
+  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  <packaging>jar</packaging>
+
+  <url>http://maven.apache.org/</url>
+
+  <scm>
+    <connection>scm:svn:http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/maven/plugins/trunk/maven-changelog-plugin/</connection>
+    <developerConnection>scm:svn:https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/maven/plugins/trunk/maven-changelog-plugin/</developerConnection>
+    <url>http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/maven/plugins/trunk/maven-changelog-plugin/</url>
+  </scm>
+
+  <properties>
+    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
+  </properties>
+
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+        <artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.0</version>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
+  <reporting>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+        <artifactId>maven-changelog-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>@pom.version@</version>
+		<configuration>
+          <outputEncoding>UTF-8</outputEncoding>
+		</configuration>        
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </reporting>
+</project>
diff --git a/src/it/minimal-pom-output-encoding/verify.bsh b/src/it/minimal-pom-output-encoding/verify.bsh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d02cdf5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/it/minimal-pom-output-encoding/verify.bsh
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+import java.io.*;
+import java.util.*;
+import java.util.regex.*;
+
+try
+{
+    File siteDir = new File( basedir, "target/site" );
+    System.out.println( "Checking for existence of site directory: " + siteDir );
+    if ( !siteDir.isDirectory() )
+    {
+        System.out.println( "FAILED" );
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    String[] reports = { "changelog", "dev-activity", "file-activity" };
+    for ( String report : reports )
+    {
+        File reportFile = new File( siteDir, report + ".html" );
+        System.out.println( "Checking for existence of report: " + reportFile );
+        if ( !reportFile.isFile() )
+        {
+            System.out.println( "FAILED" );
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+}
+catch( Throwable t )
+{
+    t.printStackTrace();
+    return false;
+}
+
+return true;
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/changelog/ChangeLogReport.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/changelog/ChangeLogReport.java
index 9732821..b22eea2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/changelog/ChangeLogReport.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/plugin/changelog/ChangeLogReport.java
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 import org.codehaus.doxia.sink.Sink;
 import org.codehaus.doxia.site.renderer.SiteRenderer;
 import org.codehaus.plexus.util.StringUtils;
+import org.codehaus.plexus.util.WriterFactory;
 
 import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
@@ -53,6 +54,8 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.PrintWriter;
 import java.io.StringReader;
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.io.Writer;
 import java.text.ParseException;
 import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
@@ -396,13 +399,21 @@
             {
                 throw new MavenReportException( "Can't create " + outputXML.getAbsolutePath(), e );
             }
+            catch ( UnsupportedEncodingException e )
+            {
+                throw new MavenReportException( "Can't create " + outputXML.getAbsolutePath(), e );
+            }
+            catch ( IOException e )
+            {
+                throw new MavenReportException( "Can't create " + outputXML.getAbsolutePath(), e );
+            }
         }
 
         return changelogList;
     }
 
     private void writeChangelogXml( List changelogList )
-        throws FileNotFoundException
+        throws FileNotFoundException, UnsupportedEncodingException, IOException
     {
         StringBuffer changelogXml = new StringBuffer();
 
@@ -429,11 +440,16 @@
         changelogXml.append( "\n</changelog>" );
 
         outputXML.getParentFile().mkdirs();
-
-        PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter( new BufferedOutputStream( new FileOutputStream( outputXML ) ) );
-        pw.write( changelogXml.toString() );
-        pw.flush();
-        pw.close();
+        
+        //PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter( new BufferedOutputStream( new FileOutputStream( outputXML ) ) );
+        //pw.write( changelogXml.toString() );
+        //pw.flush();
+        //pw.close();
+        // MCHANGELOG-86
+        Writer writer = WriterFactory.newWriter( new BufferedOutputStream( new FileOutputStream( outputXML ) ), outputEncoding );
+        writer.write( changelogXml.toString() );
+        writer.flush();
+        writer.close();
     }
 
     /**