diff --git a/src/gitchangelog/gitchangelog.py b/src/gitchangelog/gitchangelog.py
index 8e482c1..f82c999 100755
--- a/src/gitchangelog/gitchangelog.py
+++ b/src/gitchangelog/gitchangelog.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
     mako = None
 
 
-__version__ = "%%version%%"  ## replaced by autogen.sh
+__version__ = "3.0.3.dev201706231753"  ## replaced by autogen.sh
 
 DEBUG = None
 
@@ -1446,7 +1446,10 @@ def FileInsertAtFirstRegexMatch(filename, pattern, flags=0,
 
     def write_content(f, content):
         for content_line in content:
-            f.write(content_line)
+            if PY3:
+                f.write(content_line)
+            else:
+                f.write(content_line.encode(_preferred_encoding))
 
     def _wrapped(content):
         index = idx(_file_regex_match(filename, pattern, flags=flags))
diff --git a/test/test_publish.py b/test/test_publish.py
index 080d05b..4077ca4 100644
--- a/test/test_publish.py
+++ b/test/test_publish.py
@@ -181,3 +181,4 @@ def make_insertion(string, pattern, insert, **kw):
         self.assertEqual(make_insertion("A\nC\n", r"C", "B\n"), "A\nB\nC\n")
         self.assertEqual(make_insertion("B\nC\n", r"B", "A\n"), "A\nB\nC\n")
         self.assertEqual(make_insertion("A\nB\n", r"$", "C\n", idx=lambda m: m.end() + 1), "A\nB\nC\n")
+        self.assertEqual(make_insertion("A\nB\n", r"$", "✔\n", idx=lambda m: m.end() + 1), "A\nB\n✔\n")