diff --git a/goose/__init__.py b/goose/__init__.py
index 73947ce6..17326a42 100644
--- a/goose/__init__.py
+++ b/goose/__init__.py
@@ -62,6 +62,11 @@ def crawl(self, crawl_candiate):
         return article
 
     def initialize(self):
+        # we don't need to go further if image extractor or
+        # local_storage is not set
+        if not self.config.local_storage_path or \
+           not self.config.enable_image_fetching:
+            return
         # test if config.local_storage_path
         # is a directory
         if not os.path.isdir(self.config.local_storage_path):
diff --git a/goose/version.py b/goose/version.py
index 885c6eff..fe4951c6 100644
--- a/goose/version.py
+++ b/goose/version.py
@@ -21,5 +21,5 @@
 limitations under the License.
 """
 
-version_info = (1, 0, 11)
+version_info = (1, 0, 12)
 __version__ = ".".join(map(str, version_info))