Tuesday, May 8, 2001 ARLINGTON, VA – Shareholders of Gannett Co., Inc. (GCI-NYSE) today re-elected three members of the board of directors at the annual meeting held at the company’s headquarters here. They are: James A. Johnson, Stephen P. Munn and Gannett Chairman, President and CEO Douglas H. McCorkindale. McCorkindale announced to shareholders that former Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Donna E. Shalala would join the company’s Board of Directors on June 1. She was elected to the board at a meeting earlier in the day. The board, at their meeting, also declared a regular quarterly dividend of 22 cents per share, payable on July 2, 2001 to shareholders of record on June 8, 2001. In announcing Shalala’s election, McCorkindale said “Dr. Shalala’s experience and breadth of knowledge, gained during her remarkable career, will be a great asset to Gannett’s Board.” Shalala, president-elect of the University of Miami, will become the eighth member of the board. Shalala served as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services from January 1993 to January 2001, the longest serving HHS secretary in U.S. history. During her tenure, the department implemented sweeping welfare reform legislation, began a program to provide health insurance for children in poor, working families and raised child-immunization levels to the highest in history. She also oversaw the revitalization of the National Institutes of Health and major reforms of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Shalala was the first woman to head a Big Ten University as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987-1993. In 1992, Business Week named her one of the top five managers in higher education.