diff --git a/R/package.R b/R/package.R
index 821144c8c..17c67bd40 100644
--- a/R/package.R
+++ b/R/package.R
@@ -180,6 +180,7 @@ pkgdown_config_path <- function(path) {
 
 read_meta <- function(path, call = caller_env()) {
   path <- pkgdown_config_path(path)
+
   if (is.null(path)) {
     yaml <- list()
   } else {
@@ -191,7 +192,7 @@ read_meta <- function(path, call = caller_env()) {
         # (<<path>>) Parser error: <<parsing error>>
         yaml_err <- conditionMessage(e)
         # extract parsing error from original error (i.e. remove the path)
-        parsing_error <- sub("[^\\)]+\\)\\s", "", yaml_err)
+        parsing_error <- sub("[^\\)]+\\)\\s?", "", yaml_err)
         # Extract path from original error
         path_yaml <- regmatches(yaml_err, m = regexpr("\\(([^\\)]+)\\)", yaml_err))
         path_yaml <- gsub("\\(([^\\)]+)\\)", "\\1", path_yaml)
@@ -205,6 +206,7 @@ read_meta <- function(path, call = caller_env()) {
         )
       })
   }
+
   yaml
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/_snaps/package.md b/tests/testthat/_snaps/package.md
index 7482d9d7a..4f782273f 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/_snaps/package.md
+++ b/tests/testthat/_snaps/package.md
@@ -27,6 +27,6 @@
     Condition
       Error in `as_pkgdown()`:
       x Could not parse the config file.
-      ! Parser error: while parsing a block mapping at line 1, column 1 did not find expected key at line 9, column 3
+      ! Scanner error: mapping values are not allowed in this context at line 2, column 8
       i Edit 'assets/bad-yaml/_pkgdown.yml' to fix the problem.
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/assets/bad-yaml/DESCRIPTION b/tests/testthat/assets/bad-yaml/DESCRIPTION
index 3da3a37bf..2329d143b 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/assets/bad-yaml/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/tests/testthat/assets/bad-yaml/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,13 +1,3 @@
 Package: kittens
-Version: 1.0.0
-Title: A test package
-Description: A longer statement about the package.
-Authors@R: c(
-    person("Hadley", "Wickham", , "hadley@rstudio.com", role = c("aut", "cre")),
-    person("RStudio", role = c("cph", "fnd"))
-    )
-RoxygenNote: 6.0.1
-Suggests: 
-    knitr,
-    rmarkdown
+Authors@R: person("Hadley", "Wickham", , "hadley@rstudio.com", role = c("aut", "cre")),
 VignetteBuilder: knitr
diff --git a/tests/testthat/assets/bad-yaml/_pkgdown.yml b/tests/testthat/assets/bad-yaml/_pkgdown.yml
index 159087c1d..01904824d 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/assets/bad-yaml/_pkgdown.yml
+++ b/tests/testthat/assets/bad-yaml/_pkgdown.yml
@@ -1,16 +1,6 @@
 url: https://pkgdown.r-lib.org
-
-home:
   title: Build websites for R packages
 
 authors:
    Jay Hesselberth:
     href: https://hesselberthlab.org
-  Maëlle Salmon:
-    href: https://masalmon.eu
-  Hadley Wickham:
-    href: http://hadley.nz
-  Posit Software, PBC:
-    href: https://www.posit.co
-    html: >-
-      <img src='https://www.tidyverse.org/posit-logo.svg' alt='Posit' width='62' height='16' style="margin-bottom: 3px;" />