diff --git a/IPython/nbconvert/utils/pandoc.py b/IPython/nbconvert/utils/pandoc.py
index 299b648..c853d3c 100644
--- a/IPython/nbconvert/utils/pandoc.py
+++ b/IPython/nbconvert/utils/pandoc.py
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 
 # Stdlib imports
-import sys
 import subprocess
 
 # IPython imports
@@ -24,6 +23,15 @@ from IPython.utils.py3compat import cast_bytes
 # Classes and functions
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+class PandocMissing(SystemExit):
+    """Exception raised when Pandoc is missing.
+
+    A subclass of SystemExit so it will cause an exit if not caught, but
+    explicitly named so that it's possible to catch.
+    """
+    pass
+
+
 def pandoc(source, fmt, to, extra_args=None, encoding='utf-8'):
     """Convert an input string in format `from` to format `to` via pandoc.
 
@@ -49,11 +57,14 @@ def pandoc(source, fmt, to, extra_args=None, encoding='utf-8'):
         command.extend(extra_args)
     try:
         p = subprocess.Popen(command,
-                            stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE
+                             stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE
+        )
+    except OSError as e:
+        raise PandocMissing(
+            "Error trying to run '%s': %s.\n" %(" ".join(command), e) +
+            "Please check that pandoc is installed:\n" +
+            "http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/installing.html"
         )
-    except OSError:
-        sys.exit("ERROR: Unable to launch pandoc. Please install pandoc:\n"
-                 "(http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/installing.html)")
     out, _ = p.communicate(cast_bytes(source, encoding))
     out = out.decode(encoding, 'replace')
     return out[:-1]