REPORT OF INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTANTS To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of  Gannett Co., Inc. In our opinion, the accompanying consolidated balance sheets and the related consolidated statements of income, of cash  flows and of changes in shareholders’ equity present fairly, in  all material respects, the financial position of Gannett Co., Inc. and its subsidiaries at Dec. 30, 2001 and Dec. 31, 2000, and  the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended Dec. 30, 2001 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. These financial statements are the responsibil- ity of the Company’s management; our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits. We conducted our audits of these statements in accor- dance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America, which require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts  and disclosures in the financial statements, assessing the  accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, and evaluating the overall financial statement  presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. McLean, Va. February 7, 2002 47