diff --git a/_includes/footer.html b/_includes/footer.html
index 1e4b2bc916..0d89a61a7c 100644
--- a/_includes/footer.html
+++ b/_includes/footer.html
@@ -7,7 +7,13 @@ <h2 class="footer-heading">{{ site.title | escape }}</h2>
     <div class="footer-col-wrapper">
       <div class="footer-col footer-col-1">
         <ul class="contact-list">
-          <li>{{ site.title | escape }}</li>
+          <li>
+            {% if site.author %}
+              {{ site.author | escape }}
+            {% else %}
+              {{ site.title | escape }}
+            {% endif %}
+            </li>
           <li><a href="mailto:{{ site.email }}">{{ site.email }}</a></li>
         </ul>
       </div>
diff --git a/example/_config.yml b/example/_config.yml
index dd83b9bde3..3c3acf6ac3 100644
--- a/example/_config.yml
+++ b/example/_config.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 theme: minima
 
 name: A site title
+author: Mr. GitHub User
 description: "Write an awesome description for your new site here. It will appear in your document head meta (for Google search results) and in your feed.xml site description."
 
 collections: